Sony Walks Into The Tablet PC Market... Too Late or Too Expensive? (HPQ, AAPL, AMZN, SNE, GOOG, NVDA)

So what if Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) cannot keep its tablet PC efforts straight.  The raw success of the iPad from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is emboldening new tablet competition just at the same time that Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is set to enter the tablet market.  Today’s newest announcement comes from Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) and it wants to get into the tablet game.

Sony has announced the market launch of its first two Sony Tablet devices. The devices are powered by Android from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and the devices are available for pre-sale today.  The devices are expected to hit shelves next month, in time for the holiday season.

The Sony Tablet S device is “optimized for rich media entertainment” and comes with a 9.4-inch touchscreen display, comes with an NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) Tegra 2 mobile processor.  The weight is only 1.33 pounds, has hours of comfortable use, and comes with built-in Wi-Fi compatibility.

The Sony Tablet P device will be available later this year and is said to be for mobile communication and entertainment.  This one comes with a folding design and has two 5.5-inch displays.  This one weighs only 0.83 pounds.  It also features the same NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) Tegra 2 mobile processor, is Wi-Fi compatible and also 4G capable exclusively on the AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) mobile broadband network.

Both models feature front and rear facing cameras for video or still image capture and both devices support micro USB interface and SD card.  After looking at the SHOP site at Sony.com, the Tablet S starts at $499.00 for the 16GB version and the 32GB versions will cost $599.99.  The folding P Tablet is still pending with a NOTIFY ME status.

Unfortunately, having the same price as the iPad is not exactly the biggest driver of demand out there.  Amazon is said to be unleashing a lower-priced tablet to compete.  H-P learned a hard lesson with its WebOS (Palm) system.

JON C. OGG