Sony reveals VAIO T ultrabook: 11 and 13-inch models, Sandy Bridge processors, out this month
Sony has announced its first true ultrabook, the VAIO T. The design looks much the same as the prototype we saw all the way back at CES, with a 17.8mm-thick brushed metal body that pushes right up against the 18mm limit specified by Intel.
Context & Ripple Effects
Sony has been circling the thin-and-light laptop for years — the VAIO P and the VAIO X both pushed the ultraportable envelope back in 2009 — but when Intel launched its ultrabook program, Sony sat out while rivals moved first. A Wall Street Journal report in January 2012 documented how far PC firms' bet on ultrabooks had already run without Sony, and coverage in April framed the company as having been left behind as the broader industry advances past it.
The VAIO T closes that gap: 11- and 13-inch models on Sandy Bridge, in a 17.8mm brushed-metal body that pushes right up against Intel's 18mm ceiling. The design matches the prototype shown at CES in January, meaning Sony spent the quarter between concept and shelf rather than rethinking it — a fast-follow entry, not a category invention.
First-order effects
- Sony joins the ultrabook segment months after its competitors, shipping two models this month that meet Intel's specification by a margin of millimetres rather than beating it.
Second-order effects
- Intel gains one more marquee vendor validating the ultrabook label as a consumer category, strengthening its leverage over laptop design specs across the industry.
- Established ultrabook sellers such as ASUS — whose 2007 U2 luxury ultraportable prefigured the category — now face Sony competing on brand and industrial design in the same thin-and-light price band.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Intel's written specification — thickness limits, processor family — hardens into the de facto definition of the premium laptop, with vendors designing to Intel's numbers rather than their own engineering targets.
The trend: PC makers are converging on Intel's ultrabook specification as the template for premium laptops, with Sony arriving as one of the last major vendors to sign on.