Thursday, February 6th 2014
Sony to Sell VAIO Brand, PC Division
Sony is reportedly disposing of the iconic VAIO brand, and with it, its PC division. The brand and its assets will be sold off to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), much in the same way as IBM disposed its PC business and Thinkpad brands over to Lenovo (which was a major supplier to IBM at the time). We won't see the last of VAIO notebooks, Ultrabooks, tablets, and convertibles, only that they won't be sold by Sony. The deal is part of Sony's larger efforts to shed underperforming businesses.
JIP could establish a new PC company from the assets it buys off Sony. In all likelihood, the VAIO brand could be retained, although the company's name itself hasn't been finalized. The new company will see Sony transfer 300 of its employees, to jump-start operations. The MoU signed between Sony and JIP seems to suggest that the company will prioritize Japan over global markets, in what is a similar strategy to Lenovo's. The Chinese company, after acquiring IBM's PC assets, focused its efforts on capturing the Chinese domestic markets with not just PCs, but also smartphones and tablets.
Source:
Sony
JIP could establish a new PC company from the assets it buys off Sony. In all likelihood, the VAIO brand could be retained, although the company's name itself hasn't been finalized. The new company will see Sony transfer 300 of its employees, to jump-start operations. The MoU signed between Sony and JIP seems to suggest that the company will prioritize Japan over global markets, in what is a similar strategy to Lenovo's. The Chinese company, after acquiring IBM's PC assets, focused its efforts on capturing the Chinese domestic markets with not just PCs, but also smartphones and tablets.
12 Comments on Sony to Sell VAIO Brand, PC Division
Shame to see Sony exit, but if they can get themselves back on track again, that is good. If JIP can deliver a better product then that would be good when it finally goes global. But unfortunately it'll still most likely be made in China. Last I checked Fujitsu was the only brand still made in Japan but their laptops are all grossly underpowered.
Just need a PC maker, made in Japan, with decent parts. Even if the price is higher, I'd gladly pay more for a non Chinese made machine. Dump my Lenovo in a heartbeat.
I guess if it is not working for them it has to go.
Their consumer-end models haven't hit the price mark compared to rivals. In recent years, the high-end models have had the tech-spec but not the design/build quality to warrant their premium. In years gone by, Vaio was premium end AND had design/build quality as good if not better than any competition. (old Z series).
I've been "waiting" for the next Vaio buy for literally years. Each model just didnt quite hit the mark. Samsung Series 9 is now taking that space.
although, while we are in lala land, mabye laptop manufacturers will start adequately cooling their machines, especially the gaming models. and include 8GB ram standard. one can dream..
Recently, VAIO have made their notebook constructions better but it was still grossly overpriced compared to Lenovo. I bought a Lenovo instead even though it was aesthetically and build quality inferior. However, at half the price and 90% of the quality, I can't argue much. After the disappointment of Win8 and MS unwillingness to fix it, I made a leap of faith to Macbooks for mobility. I have to say that side by side comparisons at Microcenter only convinced me further that Macbooks are actually a better value on top of the better construction.
After using my macbook for a year, I am still able to easily sell it for 80% of the price I paid for it. I can't say the same about the VAIO. The construction of the macbook also held solid vs the VAIO that showed its age after just one year. The Apple Care Warranty is second to none. I've never seen no questions asked warranty work that is so convenient and doesn't give me some non-english speaking CR or complex month long system to work through.
My only gripe about Macbooks are the upgrade restrictions. Basically, you cannot upgrade your SSD, RAM or anything for that matter. That's insane that I have to buy a new macbook if I need 16GB of RAM instead of the original 8GB. The original 256GB SSD is also too small. The upgrade premium is huge as well. At the high end, Apple literally have no competition and their prices reflect that.