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Sony showed off certain tech features it said would differentiate the devices in the market once they are released, while it made two related announcements. One was that AT&T would be the S2’s exclusive U.S. mobile broadband provider; David Haight, vice president of business development for AT&T emerging devices, said his company plans to offer pre-paid and post-paid data plans, with distribution and pricing to be announced at the products’ launch. The other was that a website, airappchallenge.com, had just launched, promoting a developers contest in conjunction with partner Adobe Systems designed to stimulate creation of Adobe AIR applications for the tablets. The contest, the Adobe AIR App Challenge, will award a total of $200,000 in cash prizes.
Kunimasa Suzuki, president of the VAIO and Mobile Business Group, Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony Corp., indicated four guiding principles the company used as criteria in the engineering of the tablets: optimally designed hardware and software; swift and smooth performance; network entertainment; and cross-device connectivity.
“We spent a bit of time to maximize our differentiation points from other tablets, but we don’t think it’s been too much of a delay” in market introduction, Suzuki said. “We feel we will be reasonably introducing them at the right time.”
Unique physical attributes noted by the devices’ demonstrators included the S1’s screen incline, making typing easier, and the way it is weighted to be held with one hand; they also noted that the foldable S2 is designed for optimized functionality and at 5.5 inches by 10.4 inches closed, is pocketable.
Both devices are equipped with Quick View, which hastens website display by loading images first and JavaScript later, and Quick Touch Panel, which speeds up response time when the user touches the screen to enlarge or scroll content.
As for network enhancement, both devices are PlayStation-certified, giving them access to genuine PlayStation titles. Also, according to the presenters, Sony has made it easier to “register” devices to work with the tablet and therefore, to access content on other CE devices using the tablets as remote controllers.
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