It's official, Vaio's been sold

"Amid reforming its TV arm (and splitting it into a stand-alone entity), it's going to sell its PC business and VAIO brand to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), with the final deal set to be done by the end of March 2014."

http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/06/sony-sells-vaio/



Now what? No replacement for my Vaio Z12...

 

I wanted to get a vaio pro 11 or 13 but wanted to wait for a 2014 refresh. Should I assume there will not be one this year?

 

A bit sad, but since the VAIO branding and hopefully a bunch of the hi-tech engineers comes along to JIP, perhaps they will try to turn back the clock to the last successful VAIOs to try to repeat the success with new HW.

The laptop PC is *not* dead. Sure, perhaps 80-90% of old laptop buyers are now content with a tablet, but professionals/consultants wanting to work - at the office, at home, at the customer - REQUIRE a slim, fast laptop. As long as JIP realizes this, they will be able to sell a whole lot of VAIOs.

 

This is incredibly sad news for Vaio Owners. I literally just got a Sony Vaio Pro 13 less than 48 hours ago. Luckily I got it $300 dollars off the retail price of $1299. Now comes the dilemna, should I keep the Vaio Pro 13 or return it to the store for an exchange...? I have 5 days left to decide...

 

Your post doesn't make any sense. Why are you thinking of returning it?

 

Biggest issue now will be driver support for future OS updates, notably windows 9 or whatever it will be called. Sony was never a leader in driver support, so it will be interesting how long term future driver updates will be affected.

 

Sony's driver support (or lack of!) was a disgrace. I was also not happy that they didn't provide official Windows 8 driver support for the VPC-Z1 models. The Windows 7 updates were few and far between and when I pay £2200 for a notebook I expect some sort of support! And Sony wonder why people take their business to rivals such as Apple, Samsung & Lenovo.

I can't help but feel that now the Vaio team will no longer have Sony putting restraint upon what they can do, the new owners may let them go ahead and design the 'Z' we have all been waiting for.

 

About to buy Pro 13 out of complete panic from these news

The new models are all named SVP1322 but I can only find Windows 7 drivers for SVP1321, will these drivers work on the SVP1322 refresh?

 

I feel such a Z series that people are wishing for might not arrive at all and died with this sale My reasoning is Sony's technical prowess, where the team was able to miniaturize technology to such a level that it could make a device thinner than it would normally be. Such components come at a cost due to the development, but this is why such models cost arms and legs. Although now lots of the tech is small enough to make the devices thin and light but that original Sony factor will be missing I feel from the new devices., not to mention the Sony name.

One can argue that IBM sold their division to Lenovo which benefited significantly from the purchase and is making very good laptops right now. But I feel this took a few years after the purchase.

I won't be surprised if 5 years or more have passed and Sony will be buying back the Vaio name, assuming it still exists.

 

Why? And why buy a machine that has so many documented issues? Madness.

 

I own a Pro 13 and I do not know of any other ultrabook I could see myself buying at the moment. Since you can buy 2 VAIO Pro 13 for the price of 1 ASUS UX301 I do not count it as a rival.

I have not had any of these "many documented issues", and the only I know of is Wi-Fi(fixed by driver updates), fan noise(fixed by BIOS updates), and common Win 8.1 issues(most of which are resolved by now). According to me, wanting a Pro 13 before its disappearance(?) is not madness by any definition.

Hopefully JIP will still be selling the current line of VAIO's when they take over, but personally I hope that ascariss is right and SONY buys VAIO back in about 5 years or so.

 

Why though? Sony ruined the brand and destroyed consumer confidence by not supporting the product once it has been shipped.

As an example, Lenovo support ThinkPad's for years with regular driver updates and improvements via software updates. In fact they support some 10 year old laptops with regular driver updates! With Sony you are lucky to get 2-6 months from the moment a laptop ships, which is absolutely pathetic.

Apple also look after their customers and provide regular driver updates and a whole heap of software that's actually useful. Sony pre-load most machines with absolute crap that they hope you will buy or subscribe to.

Sony cocked up and destroyed the Vaio brand with sub-standard products and poor support.

 

Sadly its over finally my 5 year old top of the line Z, is now well and truly on the way to the garbage bin. its just so sad right when i was contemplating replacing it with a newer vaio.
i guess the mac book air wins in the end. the actual inventor of the mac's isolated keyboard design is now dead gone, so to be forgotten.

 

I always thought that the Vaio Z (2010 VPC-Z model) would remain the best laptop I've ever used/owned. The MacBook Pro 13" (Retina) is vastly superior, especially with build quality. I'd suggest taking a look at the Pro before settling on the Air. Or wait until summer to see what the redesigned Air brings to the table.

 

This. Here's to hoping they will go the VAIO Z route, rather than a laptop-blanket waste

 

They'll be looking for a fast return on their investment. They'll pump out a range of models at a range or price points. I just hope they utilise some of the talent they have inherited and release a premium line of machine. Or the 'new Z'.

I'm sure someone somewhere designed a whole bunch of premium models, but was told "no go" by Sony bosses. They won't have been sitting there doing nothing while Sony released junk like the S series & Pro range.

 

lol, you want to buy a Pro 13 with 1.7 years of accidental damage warranty left?

I am trying to get rid of mine.

 

So there won't be any future models available outside Japan?
If so then then I guess I will hang on to my S13 as long as I can. After that, who knows?

Sent from my Z10 using Tapatalk

 

Bad news really. I don't personally like the 'vaio' brand itself, I only bought my current laptop as it was Sony, not vaio. It'll be interesting to see how the market is for a stand alone vaio brand. I won't be buying a vaio only machine, I'll probably go back to building a desktop for gaming next year and get a lower power laptop.

EDIT - It also sounds like JIC is looking to concentrate on the domestic Japanese market first in any case.

 

very disappointed, the vaios were luxury laptops...sony screwed up in that they didn't make luxurious laptops they started to make consumer vaio laptops like the e series, s series y series etc....they should have kept z and tried to improve on that - with the VAIO brand.

 

I hope that JIP will come up with a good design as well. I really live the VAIO's design.

 

Eh, this doesn't make any sense. You bought a Sony, you KNEW it wouldn't be supported, and even if it was in a very grudging way. From what I can see nothing practically changes for Sony owners under this deal since what could change, Sony has always done abysmally anyway...

 

Sony VAIO's fatal flaw: The PCs cost too damned much | PCWorld

It's a shame, but no surprise.
Sony charged top dollar and did have great looking machines with great keyboards and screens - but often they were rushed to market - I would only by 2nd or better 3rd iteration models.
Then you couldn't get w7 or w8 drivers for a few years old machine.
They just had terrible service - never admitted to design faults (dead power buttons on early vaios - fan issues later on etc. etc.)
I was "happy" to pay more for "made in Japan" but the poor QA did not warrant the price.
Support was a pain to deal with - not what you'd expect with pricey machines - not customer oriented.
I would have bought more sonys - but for all of the above.

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear with my post last night, my fault. The shocking news regarding Sony's departure from the PC business came to me a surprise. After researching, debating and comparing various manufactures, I chose to go with Sony's Vaio Pro. I felt it offered a lot of features at a fair price point, in comparison to other sub $1000 ultrabooks, especially when it was on sale. For $999 I got the Pro 13 - i5 1.6 ghz Haswell, 128GB SDD, 8GB ram, I think this is a pretty good deal. But the news last night, introduced a series of questions, especially for those who purchased a new vaio laptop recently,...

a.) what happens to the warranty? will it be honored?
b.) what happens to technical support?
c.) Is it worth it to keep your vaio or sell it or return it?

I like Sony, the Song VGN-N130G, I purchased from 2005, I gave it to my mother and it still runs strong even though the battery is depleted. I was hoping with the Vaio Pro 13, I could use it just as long as I used my lenovo x200t (which lasted 5-6 years) but now, it maybe back the drawing board. This whole situation is like finding out the manufacturer of the new car you purchased recently has decided to sell it business and call it quits....what happens next...?

 

I'm hearing that the new owners may pull out of the US market, focusing on Asia (think Fujitsu or LG). I'm pretty bummed. I know some people here are very angry at Sony, but I've had great experiences with my F23 and Duo 11. Not sure whether my next machine will be Dell or Lenovo, but it'll probably be one of the two. Dell's current XPS lineup is pretty interesting, as are the second-generation Yogas.

 

Because VAIO belongs to Sony("spiritually"), and if JIP fixes it(to what it was) and sells it, I would much rather see Sony buying it back than some other company, say Lenovo for example.

Which product that has been out 6 months is not supported anymore? My VAIO S15 from late 2012, which makes it about 18 months old, runs windows 8.1 and still receive a driver or an update every now and then. It works so well that I do not need regular driver updates, which I see as a positive, and not a negative, thing.

As long as you compare VAIO to Apple, you know that you are comparing a PC to the almighty MAC, which every PC maker wishes to live up to, in terms of optimizing performance, setting themselves apart from others(all PC:s run Windows, which is probably the biggest hinderance in that aspect) etc.). To create your own software and optimize it for pre-decided hardware, as Apple does, is something only Microsoft, in the present, can do, with their Surface products.

I definitely agree that VAIO does not create the same "awe" as it did before with e.g. the Z-series, and that they need some big restructuring and reforming within the VAIO department to make a comeback.

 

On Japan Industrial Partner's website you can find a PDF containing information about the contract and transfer of the ownership of the Vaio brand, after running it through Google translates it says at the end of the document that they will honor after-sale service of Vaio products purchased prior to the transfer of the ownership of the brand.

“ú–{ŽY‹Æƒp[ƒgƒi[ƒYŠ”Ž®‰ïŽÐ-- ƒvƒŒƒXƒŠƒŠ[ƒX --

Edit: As far as I can read from the translation at least, it comes out really garbled Yoda-speak in Google Translate.
At the bottom of page 1 of the translation:

Give it a spin yourself, download the PDF document and either copy-paste its contents or upload the PDF document itself to Google Translate.

 

The new company will function as an independent entity and handle all operations regarding planning, design, development, and sales of the VAIO-branded PC business.

At the outset of the acquisition, the company will revise the product line and place emphasis on the Japan consumer and business market, in order to stabilize earnings at an appropriate scale as soon as possible.

Operations will remain at Nagano Technology Site, which has been the location of Sony's PC business. The company will acquire 250-300 employees engaging in planning, design, development, manufacturing, and sales of PC, mainly from Sony and associated companies.

JIP will provide the majority of the financial and management support. However, in order to facilitate smooth transitioning, Sony will invest in 5% of the stake.

The value of this transaction will be determined with respect to the assets transferred and will be finalized in the formal contract.

[parts omitted]

Together with the transfer of the business, Sony will end its involvement in the planning, design, and development of PC products, and the manufacture and sales will also end with the internationally sold 2014 spring models. After the end of Sony's involvement in the business, service for the purchased Sony products will continue to be provided to customers.

[parts omitted]

JIP will continue to utilize the unique product design and operation know-how that Sony has developed over the years, and will support operate the existing the VAIO brand and PC business as an independent entity, with the goal of growth and strengthening of revenue. In addition we hope we will meet the expectations of VAIO fans.

Disclaimer: I'm not a professional translator and may have inadequate experience in reading formally written Japanese.

 

Thanks a lot for the translation!

We hope so, too.

 

I find myself in the depressing position of deciding whether to remove the sig image I've had for several years now:

 

Well, it says NBR VAIO team, not NBR Sony team, so you can keep it for a while. We need to change our title from Sony to JIP I guess.

 

It's unfortunate to hear this. First, the phone company I swore by (Nokia) got bought out by Microsoft and now this? I'm still using my FW (from my signature) and it runs without problems. I see all over the Internet people proclaiming they always had problems with VAIOs but I've had this laptop for 6 years now and still goes! I was waiting for Sony to get back to its roots, for a proper Z successor but that's not gonna happen now....

 

The Sony Vaio is dead. Long live the Vaio!

Perhaps the investors will find it profitable to design and build Z-calibre products and sell them - at their usual premium prices - first in Japan, but then in Europe and the US because they'll need that much volume to make money on a high end niche product. There doesn't seem to be any segment of the laptop market that isn't over-served at present except the ultra-premium end which Apple currently owns, but I would wager there is a sizable portion of that market that would prefer not to by Apple/OSX but have no real choice now. The main issue is cost structure/economies of scale. Apple has those going for them now and as a result you really can't say there is an "Apple tax" anymore. They arguably make the best products and best values in the $1,000 - $1,500 price segment - though the state of the art of Ultrabooks has been soaring while nobody was looking, so that edge may not continue. Still, Samsung is vertically integrated and has a good running start and even Asus has both some integration (at least they make Mobos) and a growing reputation for the best designs in the business - except that they are in the very lonely $1,500 - $2,000 price segment and I doubt they can make money selling stuff that high quality for any less. Perhaps the niche for Vaio to explore is one in which they eschew the proprietary designs and use all off-the-shelf components (awesome displays, ultrafast SSDs are now found in parts bins throughout Asia), but put their talent to work in design and engineering to get back to the high performance, high design perch with only aesthetic design and engineering cooling systems as their focus, so they can continue to put quad core mobile processors in relatively thin designs - but not thaaaat thin. Make it the un-Ultrabook! I don't know, just speaking out of my....

Still and all, my 2010 Z13 looks and runs like the day it was new and still out-performs most Ultrabooks, weigh 3 lbs, get 7 hrs with a spare replaceable battery and have more ports than Ultrabooks can dream of! You can make that product - with some engineering changes - with today's components for, I'd bet, 50% of the cost to make them in 2010. Not for nothing, but nothing has ever gone wrong with that computer. I don't take it on the road because I don't want to risk anything happening to it! Kind of defeats the purpose, but I know it's always there ready for duty in any and every situation.

There are a lot of Sony Vaio freaks around these forums who are in mourning now. Go easy on them/us. Love is not a rational emotion!

PS: It is not true that "80-90% of laptop buyers are buying tablets instead!" In fact, almost no one is buying a tablet instead of a laptop, just in addition, and they aren't replacing their laptops at the same rate because there hasn't been enough of a reason to, and they have to make room for the $300 -$800 extra chunk out of their budget their paying for tablets. Prediction: most will soon learn that laptops were never primarily for media consumption or even just web browsing and soon anyone who does real work will realize it's the tablets that are of questionable value to them, not the laptops. Only the media thinks the tablet spells the death of the PC, and they are absolutely creating something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. But people need real computers and $500 plastic crap will not do it for many. With fully equipped iPads brushing against the $1,000 mark and extremely nice, powerful Ultrabooks (see my sig) are available for just over $1,000, methinks a significant segment of the market will return to their senses and put 75% of the budget into new laptops every 2-3 years and 25% into the truly magnificent tablets you can buy for $300 purely as companion devices - readers, video watchers, email reading-only.

The PC is dead. Long live the PC!

 

I posted this yesterday:
Farewell, Sony Vaio | SQLHA - Ready When You Are

The good news is that through places like Conics or Dynamism if JIP does revive Vaio with decent models, we'll still be able to get them should we want to.

 

Bummer what will 007 use in his next movie?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Samsung and ASUS have both been making better notebooks than Sony for quite a few years now. maybe this will inspire the new VAIO team to get their product back up to par. hopefully Sony will take back the brand one day once the product line and manufacturing process has been streamlined.

 

What a disaster since 2000 I have only ever bought Sony laptops, I had te ZRE, X505, X series, Z series and now JUST about to purchase a vaio pro 11. I am heart broken

SO i am assuming the SONY BRAND will not appear on the new laptops produced? That will be really sad. I hope sony lets them use the name as well as the VAIO BRAND.

Sony was epic in their laptop designs.

still in shock really. If i had £300 million, would of bought the dam company myself lol

So i am assuming its still safe to purchase a vaio pro11?

 

I am still in shock,

turn away if you don't want see grown man cry :cry:

 

I know exactly how you feel, it's like my soul is being crushed
So sad to see a brand I've put so much money into disappear, I wish I had discovered Vaio at an earlier age,
in my (unfortunately short) career of Vaio I have had the CW Series 2009, F 2010, Z 2010, E 2011, S 2011, Z 2011 and hopefully I can snag myself a Pro before it disappears forever.

Still trying to figure if Windows 7 installs on the new refreshed models of Pro but no one seems to know so far

I'm hoping JIP will do good with the Vaio brand in their hands

 

this has messed up my day, week, month, year

I suppose as a tribute, enjoy guys

Gallery: Sony VAIO: a visual history | The Verge

 

i was about to order a pro model now and this is the message under the choose your operating system.

by law, they must offer an older operating system if you request it, well in Europe anyway so I am led to believe.
therefore we can conclude that you can

but best to ask regardless.

 

so when will the sony vaio deals begin? must salvage something good out of this bad news right?

 

Thanks so much for the heads up man, the Pro you were about to order, was it one of the refreshed models? Some Sony websites still only list the previous models, you can tell the difference between the previous and the refreshed models by their modelnumber, old ones are numbered SVP13 21 and refreshed are SVP13 22

I'll also try and call Sony and see if I can get an answer out of them

 

is there much difference between new and old?

my model number in the UK is SVP1122C5E?

i am assuming these are refreshed because they now come with 512gb option where these did not exist before and also the option of something called clean start, where they put no sony crappy software on there.

do these have front facing cameras?

 

SVP11 225CE is indeed the new refreshed model, the previous models were numbered SVP11 21
I'm just gonna ask again because I want as much information as possible before I place my order, did you have the option of installing Windows 7 on this model?

 

I think that we will see Windows machines coming from Sony in some way, despite VAIO's been sold. If they will focus on tablets, it's natural there will be Xperia tablets running Windows 8 (or 9) in the future. The VAIO Tap 11 is pretty much the Xperia Z tablet with an Intel processor and Windows, after all (with adapted design for that). Maybe the form factor will change, the design will change, but we still will see some sort of spiritual sucessor of VAIO coming from Sony itself.

 

What about the Spring 2014 laptops? The last refresh before Sony is done making Vaios... I wonder if they'll be any good.

 

I doubt it...I think the whole point of selling VAIO but keeping Xperia was for them to focus their R&D into one OS, not two.

 

There's some rumors that Sony will launch a new line of Windows Phones. So, if it's correct, they don't sold VAIO because of Windows per se, or to focus on one OS, but because the entire PC market. However, if Windows tablets show some public appealing in the coming years, certainly some Xperia Windows tablets will kick off.

 

I seriously doubt there is going to be another refresh, where did you hear this?