Sony stopping pc production

LordSplodge · 14 May 2014 at 12:11

[TW]Fox;26303274 said:
Not good for somebody who simply wants something properly built, rather than fashionable-cool.

dowie said:
You can still get something well built... is the unnecessary extra of it supposedly being 'cool' really a negative?

Mac make decent laptops despite the amount of butt hurt and controversy they seem to cause amongst some.

Exactly. I've never had a laptop as good as this 2012 Retina MacBook Pro. I don't even consider the supposed 'cool' factor.

willhub · 14 May 2014 at 13:22

My HP is great for 700 quid but I can see in about 5 years we'll all be on tablets Laptops will be long gone.

TheVoice · 14 May 2014 at 13:32

Thompson_NCL said:
Are there no British manufacturers? I suppose with the small profit margins there isn't much call for it, but it's a shame that there is no British equivalent of Dell/Lenovo/HP etc. I suppose they all use components manufactured by others anyway, so if I want British I might as well buy from OCUK.

If the profit margins are small when they're being built in bulk in countries where labour is cheap and shipped across the world, there obviously isn't going to be any margin at UK labour rates, other than what we have already (e.g. systems built to order).

mrk · 14 May 2014 at 13:40

KIA said:
Good riddance. It's been downhill for Sony since the invasive DRM.

DRM? Let's talk about the proprietary MemoryStick as well!

englishpremier · 14 May 2014 at 13:46

Always used to want a sony Vaio.

Got a Macbook Air at the moment, and I don't even like Apple. A search at the time easily showed that I couldn't get anything in 11" size to the same or better specs for the price.

Rilot · 14 May 2014 at 13:47

pitchfork said:
Sony VAIO laptop used to be a status symbol, now it's all Macbooks.

There's a reason for that. VAIO used to be a halo brand for Sony. The devices were excellent and had brand kudos. The devices themselves could go toe-to-toe with anything from Apple, HP, Dell etc. Then Sony took the brand and did the stupidest thing that they could possibly do and applied it to cheap, commodity devices that were shoddily built, added a premium price for the VAIO name and expected them to sell on the basis of the brand. They didn't, and VAIO quickly became "just Sony's name for laptops" rather than a brand of quality.

Hyburnate · 14 May 2014 at 13:55

Rilot said:
There's a reason for that. VAIO used to be a halo brand for Sony. The devices were excellent and had brand kudos. The devices themselves could go toe-to-toe with anything from Apple, HP, Dell etc. Then Sony took the brand and did the stupidest thing that they could possibly do and applied it to cheap, commodity devices that were shoddily built, added a premium price for the VAIO name and expected them to sell on the basis of the brand. They didn't, and VAIO quickly became "just Sony's name for laptops" rather than a brand of quality.

Exactly right, they went from being prestigious to using the cheap ****. Much like Corsair really, built a brand and then changed the quality and kept the price.

Deep · 14 May 2014 at 14:04

Rilot said:
There's a reason for that. VAIO used to be a halo brand for Sony. The devices were excellent and had brand kudos. The devices themselves could go toe-to-toe with anything from Apple, HP, Dell etc. Then Sony took the brand and did the stupidest thing that they could possibly do and applied it to cheap, commodity devices that were shoddily built, added a premium price for the VAIO name and expected them to sell on the basis of the brand. They didn't, and VAIO quickly became "just Sony's name for laptops" rather than a brand of quality.

Everything about this is correct!

Energize · 14 May 2014 at 14:09

willhub said:
My HP is great for 700 quid but I can see in about 5 years we'll all be on tablets Laptops will be long gone.

Without a keyboard, and low specs, tablets are not useful for productivity, that's why laptops are so popular. Many laptops have a touchscreen now.

mrk · 14 May 2014 at 14:13

Energize said:
Without a keyboard, and low specs, tablets are not useful for productivity, that's why laptops are so popular. Many laptops have a touchscreen now.

Semi-true. Tablets like Microsoft's Surface are gaining ground at a fast pace and come with decent keyboards that are part of the unit itself that folds over. I believe iPads have similar "case" keyboards too.

Times have changed. Laptops are bulky... People don't want bulk. Phablets are heading a slightly different direction - It's uncertain yet as to where they will end up but the uptake of the Note range and Sony's Z series as well as others becoming popular it's not hard to see why they would be a hit.

porushinobu · 14 May 2014 at 14:13

Energize said:
Without a keyboard, and low specs, tablets are not useful for productivity, that's why laptops are so popular. Many laptops have a touchscreen now.

I think the only reason he says that is because windows 8.1 is designed for touchscreens. Besides no laptops would mean PCs or nothing for non console ~~rubbish~~ Gaming, which would mean no mobile gaming for traditional mous and keyboard input.

mrk said:
Semi-true. Tablets like Microsoft's Surface are gaining ground at a fast pace and come with decent keyboards that are part of the unit itself that folds over. I believe iPads have similar "case" keyboards too.

Times have changed. Laptops are bulky... People don't want bulk. Phablets are heading a slightly different direction - It's uncertain yet as to where they will end up but the uptake of the Note range and Sony's Z series as well as others becoming popular it's not hard to see why they would be a hit.

However the above being said, it could go either way, as long as the keyboard and mouse stays then it should be okay.

matthab · 14 May 2014 at 14:24

dowie said:
The way they acted when they did go under doesn't leave me with any sympathy... taking orders they knew they'd never fill from joe public right up until the end. No doubt the actual stock that could have been sent to fulfil those orders was then sold off a second time by the receivers.

Tell me about it I worked on the phones in the weekends and the whole thing was a mess.

At the end all stock ended up in a massive sell off or was put on a back of the lorry. Anyone who bought anything during that time got a years warranty with Time but it was worth the paper it was written on.

Energize · 14 May 2014 at 14:42

mrk said:
Semi-true. Tablets like Microsoft's Surface are gaining ground at a fast pace and come with decent keyboards that are part of the unit itself that folds over. I believe iPads have similar "case" keyboards too.

Times have changed. Laptops are bulky... People don't want bulk. Phablets are heading a slightly different direction - It's uncertain yet as to where they will end up but the uptake of the Note range and Sony's Z series as well as others becoming popular it's not hard to see why they would be a hit.

The 13" 1.2kg high end laptops aren't bulky, they are barely larger than tablets and often have a touchscreen too.

The question is where do you draw the line between a tablet and a laptop?

boxman2000 · 14 May 2014 at 14:42

No surprises here, I personally like Sony products, especially their smart phones, but back in the day the laptops came at a premium but now there are much better for the money.

I must say in my experience I fail to see the hate going around on this forum for Acer laptops. I supplied dozens and dozens of these of the the years and owned a few myself, yes they are cheap but they are reliable and only ever had one problem in all that time which was a power supply.

Is this typical to have 3% margin on the manufacturing side then? You're better off in retail/wholesale in that case, surely!

Malt_Vinegar · 14 May 2014 at 14:47

A good decision, they need to try and save their declining company. mainstream PC business is not the place to try and grow a business

mrk · 14 May 2014 at 14:48

Energize said:
The 13" 1.2kg high end laptops aren't bulky, they are barely larger than tablets and often have a touchscreen too.

The question is where do you draw the line between a tablet and a laptop?

Well the one that undocks from its keyboard and can be used as a fully featured tablet, that's where

I have ultrabooks and surface 2 pros at work and they are inherently different beasts. The Surface can be used as a full on laptop and has a bluetooth mouse, has the latest connectivity and runs the same OS as any high end laptop. Just so happens it's more versatile and because of that, better.

englishpremier · 14 May 2014 at 14:55

Tablets aren't great for anything that requires typing input, any sort of computing power, or flexibility. Handy for spotify or reading a magazine on the train though. Even the internet experience on them is limited compared to laptops (as developers strip out features or use media queries to hide content on mobile verions of sites).

Most can't support themselves so you need a stand or case to do it for you. They are rediculously low spec. You lose half the screen everytime you want to type something unless you fancy carrying a keyboard about with you. Limited number of applications compared to PC and Mac laptaops, and the applications tend to be cut down versions (due to the low spec nature of tablets).

chaparral · 14 May 2014 at 17:24

englishpremier said:
Tablets aren't great for anything that requires typing input, any sort of computing power, or flexibility. Handy for spotify or reading a magazine on the train though. Even the internet experience on them is limited compared to laptops (as developers strip out features or use media queries to hide content on mobile verions of sites)..

The worst thing for me about tablets is that they don't support many USB items...

For example
1) I can't plug my power commander on my bike into a tablet to change/adjust maps..
2) I can't plug my digital camera's into a tablet ...
3) I can't plug my Logitech harmony remote into a Tablet to program it

Can you get a tablet that runs windows 8.1 that would support doing these things ??? :confused:

^TANK^ · 14 May 2014 at 18:04

^TANK^ said:
So what do people class as a premium laptop brand these days now?

JonJ678 · 14 May 2014 at 18:16

I spent a long time looking at Sony's ultrabook range at the end of last year, hoping to find something with a high resolution screen and day long battery life. Couldn't find one. Slightly sad to see them go.

IBM thinkpads were brilliant computers, roughly up to the point where IBM sold the business to Lenovo. Some of the stuff from Samsung looks high quality, but they sell a lot of crap too.

Now I have a macbook. I'd guess that counts as a premium brand. I'm not loving the proprietary display ports or the complete lack of ethernet, but at least the battery is good and the screen is excellent.