With CES 2012 now over, we’ve compiled a list of Sony specific announcements and news from the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas.
We also learned some key stats from the event, such as more than 60 billion hours of Sony Music is listened to each year and there are more than a billion people who watch Sony movies and TV shows each year. There will be 300 million Sony networked devices in market over the next three years and there are currently 900 million products in households.
The Press conference also covered the Sony Entertainment Network and why it exists, which summed up is “to give consumers a single, cloud based, place for all their networked content (games, music, movies, TV shows), with one login and one digital wallet”.
The Sony PlayStation Vita will launch February 22nd with Netflix in the US and the Sony Tablet P will be released shortly and both will come with Sony Entertainment access.
The next stage in Sony Entertainment Network is PlayMemories Online which will let you host your photos and video “on the cloud”. This will launch in spring.
Xperia Handsets:
Sony Xperia ION is the first LTE smartphone from Sony and will be exclusive to AT&T in the US. Featuring a 4.5 inch display, 1.5GHz dual core processor and 12 megapixel camera, the Xperia ION along with the Xperia S will be the first handsets to drop the Ericsson branding since Sony bought Ericsson out of the joint venture. The Xperia S features similar specifications as the ION, a 12 megapixel camera and a 1.5GHz processor but, will come with a 4.3 inch display and will be released globally.
Cameras and Camcorders:
Sony’s top 2012 camcorders will come with a new technology called Balanced Optical Steadyshot which will reduce handshake blur by as much as 13 percent. We will also see camcorders with built in projectors with the ability to show images of up to 100 inchs on a wall with enhanced audio. The Bloggie Live Camera was also announced. A new Bloggie that allows you to stream video directly from the Bloggie camera using a Qik account. The Bloggie Live Camera features built in WiFi and is in stores now.
Google TV:
A Blu-Ray player with Google TV packed with features and enhanced Media Remote usage, an Android app that is available on the Sony Tablet S and Sony Xperia phones.
Music:
Sony will be launching an Android powered Walkman. The Walkman Z series features built in WiFi allowing you to connect to the Android Market and can be connected to a TV via a HDMI cable or DLNA. Sony have also announced Balanced Armiture Headphones which are around a quarter of the size of regular noise cancelling headphones.
Sony have unveiled their plan to create a whopping 16.4MP camera sensor which is specifically designed for use on mobile phone handsets which is exciting news for those of us that use their phone cameras as their primary cameras.
The IMX081PQ is an Exmor R based CMOS sensor and uses a back illumination to reduce noise in photographs. This technology is usually found in still cameras and camcorders in Sonys range of products. The IMX081PQ allows for 1080p video creation.
Also revealed was the IMX105PQ which is an 8.13MP sensor which uses similar technology but, will be used in smaller handsets by Sony and potentially by other mobile phone manufacturers in the future.
Initial production of the sensors isn’t due to begin until Q1 of 2011 and a few sample images can be found at the via link below which takes you to the full Sony press release for the new camera sensors also.
Earlier in the week it was revealed that Sony Ericsson were no longer planning to use the Symbian operating system on it’s future mobile handset releases. The company fully intent to take the Android OS and run with it, hoping to become a major player in the Android handset market (no comment from this Xperia owner). Now SE have announced that they are planning to release a Windows 7 based mobile phone and that it may not be all that far away from release.
Both Jan Uddenfeldt and Aldo Liguori from Sony Ericsson have stated that the company has no further plans to work with Symbian systems in the future with Mr Liguori confirming as a spokesperson for SE that, ” We have no plans for the time being to develop any new products to the Symbian Foundation standard or operating system”.
So, that seems to be the end of Symbian phones from Sony Ericsson and now Microsoft’s head of marketing in the UK Oded Ran has confirmed that Sony Ericsson are actively working on a WP7 handset, at least one handset actually.The Microsoft statement ties in with a comment recently made by Mr Uddenfeldt himself stating that a, “Windows 7 Phone is on the roadmap”.
It appears that the future is looking rosy for Windows 7 in the SE camp and we feel that it won’t be very long before Sony Ericsson are releasing specific product details for their own Windows 7 powered handset. Hopefully they won’t forget that Android update along the way though.
Sony Computer Entertainment America’s senior marketing vice president has put an end to rumors of any possible release of the PlayStation mobile phone in 2010.
Speaking to the Seattle Times, Peter Dille simply stated that they are no plans to launch any mobile this year:
Does this talk about the PlayStation brand signal more products coming soon — maybe a new mobile device?
“No new mobile launches this year.”
The PlayStation Android OS based mobile phone was rumored to be due for an October release. Perhaps we will hear more from Sony before the end of the year about hopefully a 2011 release.
For those who have been extremely interested in the Pink Vivaz we recently saw from Sony Ericsson, we now have a time scale for release. Sony Ericsson have shown of the phone on their blog today, along with a video from Maiko Ishida, who is the product planner for Vivaz. She shares her story behind the design of the handset while showing off the Vivaz in light pink. The Vivaz will be coming out in pink by the end of this quarter, so we should see it by September in stores. Unfortunately Sony Ericsson haven’t released any specifics on what regions will be receiving the handsets. All we know is that it will be “selected markets”. As always though, we’ll keep our ears to the ground to find out where exactly the pink model will be released. You can view the video of the pink Vivaz and the story behind the design below.
Ifixit.com have had the pleasure of taking a E10i (European, similar to the E10A US model) Xperia X10 Mini and opening it up and dismantling it. Sounds like fun? Well, fortunately they have also documented the procedure so that anyone who wants to try it can do (we aren’t advising anyone does so) and anyone, like us, who just wants a nosy inside the X10 Mini without risking breaking one can see it all for themselves.
Apparently the procedure was pretty easy to do and although they didnt put the handset back together they seem sure it will be a simple task too.
The full tear down can be found on the ifixit site.
For those who have been extremely interested in the 
