Sony announces "division two" VAIO laptops

I read this article today and thought it might be of some interest to some people. May be will be seeing more Sony laptops in the near future? They i thought already use Qunata lol.

 

This sounds like splitting it up into premium models division and mainstream models division with the latter being more affordable and, hopefully, more compatible with general after-market components.

 

They are not doing it already? What's the whole E series about than? Why most of their nbs are made in China, while just the top models in Japan? Do we really need even more trashy notebooks from Sony?

 

I also think that will happen, looks like Sony is 'outsourcing' building of its laptops, which almost certainly means the build quality will drop. Unless the company buying the Sony brand is good, in which case why partner with Sony?

Perhaps the strategy is to counter the difficulty in pushing sales in certain countries. Rather than find a brand new way of breaking into the market in those countries, Sony partners with existing companies there. The overhead is much lower, the brand name spreads, and once Sony gets a foothold, future expansion would be easier. That would explain why the name 'Vaio' is still used, rather than an alternate brand.

 

As this is their target-

It seems we will see may be more budget laptops. Sony has dumbed down on some things lately.
I agree they do appear to do this now with low end and high end laptops but it looks that they will be more aggressive about this in the future.

 

Perhaps they are already testing the " division 2 " components parts with the crappy speakers and poor quality screens now appearing across a lot of the 2010 VAIO line.....ie. CW, S, low res EB, speakers of the new Z, etc. Alright, not really but before I get jumped on here, anybody that has owned VAIO notebooks over the last 7 or 8 years will agree with me. VAIO is a premium brand and while I understand Sony is trying to scale back on costs, we are used to paying premium prices for these notebooks so if the price goes up, then it goes up. If this new division does in fact separate the premium and the budget lines, I'm all for it as Sony hopefully will get back to making innovative, cutting edge, eye candy types of notebooks that got our attention in the first place. And yes, the new Z is such but that is the only one I feel lately that is premium. Everything else is just....okay.

 

I got an idea guys. There seems to be a lot of engineers and people who are good at modding drivers etc... Why don't we make our own Vaio?

Who's in?

 

I don't think this really means anything about how they are building laptops -- it really is already that way. However, losing the ambiguity about which laptops are in-house design and which laptops are approved by Sony will give Sony a very big leverage in cutting the price on those approved by Sony designs without diluting the premium and prestige image (and therefore the high price) of the in-house designs.

Since they are targeting 40% increase in sales for this year, which is already one quarter in, I think we are already seeing some of it with the overlap of CW and EA (now I don't know which one is considered or actually in-house design because I think both are approved by Sony designs) in 14". We shouldl see the introduction of M netbook soon, already priced below W with practically the same specs based on the reports so far (it uses 1024x600 screen, though, which takes away a differentiation of W against competitors). There maybe others in the pipeline, targeting the back-to-school and holiday season.

Now, for people looking for the premium products, I think it really makes no difference, except maybe Sony will keep the inventory low to avoid the traditional clearance sales and keep the price of the premium line more steady -- the volume of sales would be more made up by the approved-by-Sony laptops.

 

Count me in, i got ideas too, apple is hoarding everything, there should be more 16inch laptop that targeted at artist like me XD

 

This reminds me of the Fujitsu - Siemens cooperation in Europe. In the second-hand notebook market people started putting disclaimers in their ads 'this is no FuSI crap' or 'this is original Fujitsu, made in Japan'. If Sony moves in this direction it will inevitably erode the good reputation of the premium line as well.

I already see people talking about this new face of Sony in the forums saying 'wow this is so cheap and it is a Sony, it must be better than an Acer', which is probably in line with their intentions. However, there are also threads about cheap, plastic materials, poor quality screens (Sony has always been famous for putting the best screens in their laptops), phantom battery drain to name but a few.

After owning a UX180 and an SZ680 premium edition with the carbon fiber lid my new EB seems like a big step backwards in terms of design, style and innovation.

Btw which of the 2010 notebook lines are considered to be in-house designs? Will there be a way for the customer to tell if they are buying a division 1 or division 2 product? It seems to me that only the Z is a premium product right now, as I have already returned an F series notebook for the outrageously bad screen and I own an EB.

 

From the looks for the sudden influx of VAIOs Sony is releasing, I'd say that Sony is not "set to launch", they already have. I'd guess they are tinkering around in the market to see how it reacts to the sudden increase in VAIOs.

@sedo
From the 2010 lineup, unfortunately none of the VAIO models (to me) seem to be in-house designs. All have lost their unique oriental Japanese designs in my opinion...
I'd say the new Z is the closest with its power despite petite size, but even that is cutting it. Granted, the new Z is one extremely powerful machine. But the design seems to be heading towards Apple. Don't flame me for that comment; it's just personal opinion~

The thing that sets VAIOs apart from other laptop brands are their designs, most notable being the green power light / barrel. It's good that it's SOMEWHAT there on the new models, but with this uni-body-is-a-better-seller theory (~cough, Apple, cough~) which Sony seems to have caught, I fear the seperating looks of the VAIO high-end lineup is nearing its end...

The VAIO models that look in-house / Japanese inspired? The old Z. Plain and simple. Or the TZ, one of the earlier barrel design implementations. Being of Asian background, I'm not a terribly big fellow (considered small with the average European). In that regard, the TZ and the Z are perfect. Those bigger models from HP and others are far too big, and are generically glossy and hideous (compared to the Sony lineup that is).

 

I guess Sony told the truth without intending to.
They now play in first and second division, and will leave the premier league to better teams.

Back in the old days, Sony did indeed mean "the best", and you knew that a Trinitron display would knock the socks off pretty much any other monitor. At a premium price, of course.
These days? Meh. Just another big company using OMDs to design models for them. Nothing special to see -- move along, please.

 

I think the current Sony Vaio lineup is totally confusing from the customer's perspective. There are many overlapping categories, sizes and formats with different specs floating around in different parts of the world.

For example the F11M1E I first bought was 16.4 form factor, core i5, nvidia g330, very poor full HD display and quite nice design. The new machine I bought is a 15.6 EB with core i5, ati 5650, good quality full hd display and cheap design. Now you can also buy the CW with core i5, 1600x900 display and nvidia g330 and also quite cheap design and very similar form factor.

Basically I do not really understand the intended target groups for these machines and how the consumer is supposed to figure out, which of these is better quality than the others? Now they are adding this division 1 / division 2 variable to the mix without any explanation?

Mind you, I am actually happy with the EB I bought and it is a good value machine even by Acer / Asus standards, especially if you consider the full HD option that no other company offers in this price range, but I wanted to buy a 'division 1' 15-incher and I have no idea which model that is supposed to be.

 

I don't really know how it is in the States, but the Asian electronics market is driven by the design of their products, and advertising to some extent. The most notable I can compare this to is Korea's cellphone market - a new phone every week, quite literally. All with rather unique designs and the rest. Though it seems to be focused on touch these days, with the apple craze hitting...

Basically, the more the designs, the better - it's just a competition to keep and continue selling. The more means better chance to sell I guess...

The customer simply has to like a design to buy it; unfortunately, the mainstream (Asian) public do not buy looking at the specs of a laptop, rather how pretty it looks. This is true with cellphones, TVs, stereos, whatever.

I am not trying to start a 'flame this thread' thread here (please don't...). But I think you can relate this to the iPod craze in the States. Everyone has it, and it's on every teenagers' / tweens' wishlist.
Why? I know a huge list of other media players that can whip apple's offering easy WITH lower pricetags.
...Reason being everyone has it. And everyone has it since Apple mastered advertising skills; a simple, minimilistic looking device. And that craze has simply snow-balled onto their entire product line. And the consistent minimilistic design is what sets them apart from the rest (and I think their designs are even trademarked now?), thus easier for the consumer to identify and thus purchase.

Needless to say, this is not the best way to buy electronics (at least, not for everyone). But that's just how the market is; design and ads. And people are happy with it. A highlight of how bad trend is impacting people; the average Korean teenager changes his/her cellphone every 8 months, and they change it since a new one is advertised with some other well-known actress / singer. It's not because of new functions (which it is most of time, since Korea's always innovating existing tech). It's hip, it's cool, and it's a must have. And this just continues in a cycle.

For a premium lappie maker like SONY who defied and SET market trends to fall into such categories, I must say as a techie is disappointing.

 

i kinda agree with 5ushiMonster, design and the ads plays major roles. you can even see that Acer has take new way designing their notebook. Just look at TimelineX series. is somehow very Z (old Z) inspiration.

regarding the division 1 and division 2, i guess it can be differentiate by where it builds for ready made notebook? say division 1 = made in Japan? cost higher to build i guess.

what i hope to see is by splitting the 2 divisions for VAIO, Sony has to come up with more aggressive design besides having decent built quality and specs.
the Z is one of example the awesome engineering Sony can build. Powerful and Lightweight.

and all the best to Sony.
*kinda have a feeling to move to Macbook Pro as for my next notebook, but will see whats coming in future. The new Macbook Pro (2010) is kinda dissapointing.