Sony Said in Talks to Sell Japan PC Unit to Investor Group

Sony Said in Talks to Sell Japan PC Unit to Investor Group - Bloomberg

 

This has been rumbling on for a few weeks. Last week Lenovo were rumoured to be in talks and yesterday it's an investor group. What's clear is that the Vaio subsidiary doesn't make any money and Sony are looking to get rid of it. I personally blame Sony for the unit not making any money as they haven't produced a good laptop since the VPC-Z series.

I've read the threads in this forum with interest, particularly those relating to the Vaio Pro. This notebook is an abomination and certainly doesn't meet any of the high standards Sony used to have. You guys are having to implement all sorts of workarounds just to get the damn thing to work properly.

Sony cheapened the brand with all sorts of tacky consumer models. This has proven to not make any money so I just wish they had kept to the small niche premium end of the market. It's better to just about break even than lose tens of millions each year.

My last Vaio purchase was in 2010. Perhaps with the brand in fresh hands and with some fresh ideas I may be inclined to buy another some day. In fresh hands, Vaio customers may actually get proper support, regular driver updates and actual value for money. Having said that, if it ends up in the wrong hands they may continue to sell cheap plastic junk that's not fit for purpose.

 

I have nothing against my pro 13, it has its negatives and positives, just like all products, but in the end I am happy with the pro 13 and use it as my daily device. My first vaio was the FW and for the price I paid for it, it was not worth the money, especially the plastic build and poor poor barrel/hinge design. But I used it for over 4 years and accepted the shortcomings. Other people had issues and what not, I got lucky and my FW did not. Next was the S13A, poor poor screen, but otherwise amazing laptop, had it for a year and gave it to my old brother since he needed a new ;laptop and I needed something more portable, which brings me back to the pro13.

Regardless what people think currently about the vaio lineup and now sony tarnished it, it will be unfortunate once the brand is sold. I feel Sony could turn it around, they did it with the mobile unit. Perhaps the PC business is just too competitive now a days to make a good profit.

 

Sony should have gone down with the ship (the Z series).

 

I feel that Sony is still one of the most innovative of the notebook manufacturers. Both the Flip and the Duo are very good tablet/notebook hybrids, and the pro is one of the lightest machines out there for its size. It's will be a great shame if the Vaio brand comes to an end.

 

I had the feeling in the past months/years that Sony has not put too much effort into making VAIO more successful. Maybe the new leadership does not want to focus on PCs.
To me, VAIO is still the best notebook brand, considering the logo, image, awareness, etc., and I have always been satisfied with my VAIOs, so I completely agree that it would be a shame if they would mess it up. But I still hope that they have some amazing Z-successor in the works.

 

sony is a sweet brand, love all their products. if they do sell, i suppose the vaios etc won't be going away, just who gets to produce the vaios.

 

This is too bad; I still remember when I got my VPCZ1; I was so amazed on it's spec and the beauty of it; works perfectly with Win 7
Best i7 mobile CPU, Quad SSD (64Gx4), FHD LCD, Dual Graphics, 8G Ram, built in DVD, backlit keyboard, light/portable and good battery, sexy power button........and it even comes with a noise cancelling earplug...

The Vaio Pro + Win 8 never got my attention...I hate Win 8 and Vaio Pro is just not powerful enough.............

I think I will have to switch to MBP when my Z1 is broken

 

The rMBP is an amazing machine and vastly superior to the Z1. You can still run Windows, either via Bootcamp or as a VM. Or you could just embrace OS X which is a damn fine OS.

 

Newer laptop is better than old. Duh - though obviously the Z11 trumps the Mac for weight, especially if you consider the ODD.

On the other hand, my Duo 13 is vastly superior IRL to the shiny Apple trinket (and yes, among others I've got the same one as you).

 

Of course it's superior to the best of 4 years ago, but it isn't one bit superior to an Asus UX301 - it's just $300 cheaper . I am a halfway bright person and I've been using "personal computers" since my first Apple II in 1979, but for the past 10 years I've tried to buy, use and love OSX and always gravitate back to Windows. Part of it is that you can do so much more customizing with Windows, part is that the whole Apple buying/ownership experience is so freakin obnoxious today, like you're joining the Mouseketeers. I knew I'd purchased my last Mac when I bought my daughter an MBP 13 for college in 2011 and, before I could use the dam computer I had to set up an iTunes account! I'm ok with that for Android/IOS phones and tablets, because that's the business model and besides, you can't do much with them if you're not hooked into their respective "ecosystems" (a term I despise!). But this is a freakin laptop computer. It needs iTunes for - absolutely nothing! And you can't use the friggin thing until you set up an iTunes account, give them your credit card info (not positive on the last part). Count me out. I'll pay $300 more and get the Asus; it's much prettier to look at anyway and you can get full wifi signal 50 feet away from the router, vs. about 10 for the rMBPs - and MBPs before them, and MBAs - for 5 years now, Apple. :thumbsup: