Sony teases netbook fans with 'new mobile' Vaio promo
PictureBook revival?
Sony is now teasing Japanese punters about what could be a new, tiny Vaio notebook, having begun baiting New Zealanders earlier this week.
Sony Japan's website now shows a statuesque young woman whip a long, thin package out of her handbag. The box slims down to an envelope and out slides an 'invite' for the forthcoming "New Mobile" launch.
'New Mobile' Vaio unboxed unbagged?
The invitation is for consumers to leave their email addresses to be spammed by Sony Vaio marketing in due course.
Netbook buffs are keen to see the promo as a sign Sony's about to launch a Small, Cheap* Computer.
Interesting form-factor
Just as likely - probably more so - is that it's going to launch a revived Vaio Picturebook, the compact notebook it launched way back in September 2000 on the back of Transmeta's first, 600MHz Crusoe processor, the TM5600.
A netbook, circa 2000
Arguably the candidate for the first netbook, the C1VN has an 8.9in, 1024 x 480 display with a 0.3-megapixel webcam in the bezel. It had 128MB of memory and a 12GB hard drive, along with VGA, USB and Firewire portage.
There was no Wi-Fi, of course, but the C1VN did have an on-board 56Kb/s modem. It ran Windows ME - for up to 5.5 hours, Sony claimed at the time.
No lightweight despite its 245 x 150 x 28.5mm dimensions, it weighed a gnat's todger under 1kg. Its price was weightier still: $2300.
*Probably not cheap, we'd say.
COMMENTS
Here We go Again
Another wave of sub-miniature devices that will require flawless eyesight and endless patience to use. Oh but wait --- If we add the 3D goggles................
@Fred re PowerBook memories...
"I still have my old PowerBook, which had a Pentium II BTW, [...]"
Wow, I'd love to see that one. For all I know, PowerBooks only ever used Motorola 68k and later on PowerPC CPUs...
Another Sony classic
Given Sony's track record, I look forward to the machine being crippled by bloatware (Vista or otherwise), nasty creaking plastic, and exploding batteries. I'd wait until after the first recall.
First netbook was Tosiba Libretto
Started with the CT20 but first I encountered was the CT50. IIRC spec was something like a P75 and 16mb or RAM running Win95, Went right to the heady heights of the CT110 with it P233MMX and 64mb a ram running NT4 (all unofficially).
PSION's are nowhere near the functionality of todays netbooks but the Libretto (with PCMCIA wifi) could do everything that one can today.
Probably not a netbook
I think this will probably not count as a netbook. Fujitsu, Sony, and several others have been (on and off at least) making small portables for years. But a $1000+ machine is not a netbook, as the reg says, it's probably not going to be cheap at all. Personally, the Sonys I've seen have had enough... umm... idiosyncracies I guess I'd call them... that I don't know if I would want one even if they were inexpensive, with all the fine competitors out there now. If they do manage to make this machine not stratospherically expensive, I'll be impressed and it should put some pressure onto the market, which is always nice.
