Sony's new Vaio laptops revealed
The latest refresh of Sony's iconic Vaio laptop line is dominated by the company's first entry in the growing ultrabook category. — But, looking at the new Vaio T, you might think, “Doesn't Sony already have an ultrathin laptop?”
Context & Ripple Effects
Sony put its first true ultrabook on the table at the start of June, weeks after revealing the 11- and 13-inch Vaio T with Sandy Bridge processors for a release later that month. The awkward part, as CNET's own framing suggests, is that Sony has shipped ultrathin Vaios before — the VAIO P and the VAIO X both arrived back in 2009 as ultra-portable experiments priced and positioned well above the mainstream.
What changed by 2012 is that 'thin and light' stopped being a niche Sony could charge a premium for and became a defined, Intel-driven category every PC maker was expected to fill. That shift lands on a company already under financial strain: Sony and Panasonic issued earnings forecasts that missed analyst estimates in May 2012, and their television businesses continue to post persistent losses.
First-order effects
- Sony enters the ultrabook market at the segment's price points rather than its historical premium tier, putting the Vaio T in direct lineup-to-lineup competition with every other major PC maker's 11- and 13-inch thin laptops.
- The refresh forces a positioning decision inside Sony's own catalog between the new Vaio T and its legacy ultra-portables, which now look overpriced against a category they prefigured.
Second-order effects
- Intel's ultrabook program gains one of its highest-profile OEM converts, tightening the standardization pressure on holdout manufacturers whose thin laptops sit outside the spec template.
- With Sony's consumer electronics divisions absorbing losses elsewhere, the margin-thin ultrabook segment adds volume pressure without obvious profit relief, raising the stakes for the company's next-generation console and entertainment bets.
Third-order effects
- If every major manufacturer keeps filling Intel-defined categories, laptop differentiation migrates from industrial design — long Sony's edge — to component specs and price, commoditizing the premium tier that brands like Vaio were built on.
The trend: PC makers are converging on Intel's ultrabook template, trading bespoke design identities like Sony's for standardized thin-and-light categories defined upstream by chipmakers.