Sony unveiled its long-awaited Android tablets on Wednesday – but the price tags had analysts claiming it will struggle to compete for the No 2 spot in a market dominated by Apple. The basic model of Sony's main tablet, shown at the IFA show in Berlin, is priced at €499 (£441), the same as the iPad – a price where Hewlett-Packard and other tablet companies have failed to dent Apple's dominance. Sony had vowed in January that by 2012 it would become the world's No 2 tablet maker – behind Apple – and it stuck by this bold claim at IFA where its chief executive Howard Stringer introduced the devices.
"We want to prove it's not who makes it first that counts, but who makes it better," Stringer said.
Sony is late to the game, with its first tablet due to hit store shelves in September. Its release is more than 18 months after Apple released the iPad, and almost a year since Samsung came out with its first Galaxy Tab.
Both of the tablets deviate from the now-standard slimline format that has Samsung in legal trouble with Apple, where it is accused of copying elements of the iPad – leading to an injunction on the sale of its latest tablet in Germany, and potentially across Europe.
From the side, the Sony Tablet S, which has a 9.4-inch screen, resembles a cross-section of an aircraft wing. The Tablet P, which will be heavily promoted as an ebook reader as well as a web-browsing device, is a clamshell device with twin 5.5-inch screens. Both will come with Google's Android 3 "Honeycomb" tablet software: the Tablet S with 3.1 and the Tablet P to follow with Android 3.2.
Sony is trying to distinguish its Android tablets with features that let one tablet function as a universal remote, while another one folds like a clamshell.
Both tablets come integrated with Sony's music, video and ebook services, marking them out from many other Android tablets, which have struggled to integrate compelling content services in the way Apple has with iTunes music, TV, film and app stores.
Stringer, the company's Welsh-born chairman, president and chief said Sony, which owns film studios and a record company, is uniquely positioned as a producer as well as distributor of such media. "Apple makes an iPad, but does it make a movie?" he asked.
Sony's European tablet product manager, Samir Militao, said: "We think that we have a unique design. We try to differentiate our products to [various criteria] and design is one of them."
Militao said the tablets tie in with Sony's extensive range of consumer electronics. The Tablet S has infrared functionality that makes it usable as a remote control for Sony TV sets, for instance, and users can also "flick" music to DLNA-enabled hi-fi systems.
Sony has priced the devices firmly at the high end, alongside Apple. The Tablet S will go on sale in Europe from the end of September at a starting price of €479, depending on the configuration. The pocket-sized Tablet P will follow in November, starting at €599.
Sarah Rotman, at research firm Forrester, said: "Sony is no copycat … but the price raises a red flag. We've been down this road before: Motorola and HP both priced their devices on par with the iPad, and both were unable to sell their devices in volume until they lowered the price significantly."
She added: "My concern for Sony is not price competition with Apple but price competition with Amazon, whose [Android] tablet we expect to be significantly cheaper."
At least one gadget reviewer who has played with the new "Sony Tablet S" is not so sure Sony will achieve its aim of becoming the second behind Apple. "I don't think it has the premium feel, design and build quality that either the iPad 2 or [Samsung] Galaxy Tab has right now," said Tim Stevens, editor-in-chief of Engadget.
"I honestly don't think this is going to be the tablet that really catapults Sony into the lead on the Android front, which is where it needs to be if it wants to be No 2 in the tablet market."
There has been little buzz generated ahead of the release, unlike the anticipation for the iPad or even the Galaxy Tab.
Sony hopes the tablet will restore its leading position in consumer electronics. Once a symbol of Japan's high-tech might, the Japanese electronics conglomerate is struggling under the weight of its money-losing TV division and badly needs the boost of a new hit product.
"Sony really must be in the tablet market and must succeed," said Mito Securities electronics analyst, Keita Wakabayashi.
Worldwide tablet shipments are forecast to more than triple this year to 60m units, and then rise to 275.3m units by 2015, according to a report this month from research firm IHS iSuppli.
Meanwhile Dixons Store Group said that it would allow online pre-ordering of the Sony Tablet S for the next two weeks. Mark Slater, category director at Dixons Retail, said: "Sony's Tablet S is a real contender in the tablet market and one we expect to be a big success. The two week preorder period for the Sony Tablet S will be a very exciting period for us to see how popular this tablet will be with our customers."
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