Video Shows Sony's Content Focus For S1 Tablet
Sony tablet, codenamed S1 Android
The video, posted on Notebook Italia shows the unique form factor of the S1, which emulates a magazine folded in half with a wedge shape and an off-center of gravity design. The tablet has a 9.4-inch 1280 x 800 screen, and runs Android's Honeycomb 3.0 operating system on Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 processor.
At CES in January, Kunimasa Suzuki, deputy president of Sony, said that the company wants to be No. 1 in the Android tablet space, but acknowledged that this probably wouldn't happen right away. "We'd really like to take the No. 2 position by 2012," said Suzuki, as reported by CNET.
Sony is joining the tablet game behind some other big Android players, notably HP and Samsung. In an effort to become the best selling Android tablet maker, Sony is trying to differentiate its product not only with the form factor, but with the available content as well.
Like all Android products, the S1 tablet will have access to Google's Android Market. But the Sony team has been working on two other content streams, perhaps in an effort to downplay the huge lead that Apple has over Android in the number of available applications for tablets.
Qriocity is the existing Sony marketplace for media. This service is already available on an array of Sony hardware, including HDTVs, Blu-ray disc players and VAIO computers. The new S1 tablet will have access to the movies, music and other content available through Qriocity.
The second service, PlayStation Suite, is a new initiative for emulating PlayStation One games on Android devices. Sony unveiled plans for this initiative in January, when it described PlayStation Suite as "hardware neutral". Users will initially be able to download PlayStation One emulated games, with additional titles to follow, from the PlayStation Store to their Android tablet or phone.
Sony is offering a PlayStation Certified license to hardware manufacturers that want to enable the PlayStation Suite on non-Sony devices, but there is no word yet on the companies that will make the cut. In April Sony said it will launch both the S1 tablet and the S2 clamshell tablet with PlayStation Suite compatibility.
In the video by Notebook Italia, a screen showing multiple media options is shown within one click of the desktop screen. And that isn't the only way Sony is making its focus on content clear.
"When our tablet comes out it'll have content of its own," Sony Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer said at CES. "We have television and film studios working very hard to create content specifically for it."
Sony has not made pricing or specific dates available for the S1 and S2 tablet, but has said that they will be ready globally in fall 2011.