By More OTA news has come out of IFA Berlin. This time, Sony had to field questions regarding the Xperia line of tablets. While the Tablet S will be on the roadmap for Jelly Bean sometime down the line, Sony has reportedly admitted that the lack of sales and developer interest for the Tablet P has gotten itself removed from the radar.
The Tablet P is a unique device in that it has dual displays, and while such a form factor seems cool there just doesn’t seem to be a large market for it. In turn, developer support has been extremely thin, and the extent of Sony’s dual-screen application portfolio has been mostly first party.
As interesting a tablet as it was, I think we can all admit that this was a mistake on Sony’s part. The world also didn’t respond well to the Kyocera Echo, a Sprint phone that featured a dual-screen form factor, but wasn’t quite the same clam-shell offering that the Tablet P is. Sony’s throwing that idea out, and for the time being they won’t be going much further than the traditional slate form factor we all know and love. [via Tablet Guide]
How is it possible that they didn’t know that this thing would flop? The design person or team that came up with this should have been fired on the spot.
My father used to own a psion clamshell (and some ataris) and he liked putting it in the inside pocket of his jacket. That you cannot do with 7” or more, unless it’s foldable.
Thank goodness my tablet S is at least getting it!
Sony: make a gamer tablet with controls, like the Play but with good specs. Not this.
Thank goodness i didn’t purchase the Xperia P. But will be buying the new XPERIA TABLET
It’s a shame that Sony couldn’t get the market to appreciate the P-Tablet. I’ve had one since launch and love it. As far as I can tell, it’s the only truly portable tablet with a reasonable screen(s) size. If I’m not out and about, I will use a laptop. When I want to be mobile, I want my tablet to be very portable. I guess other manufacturers will take note of what’s happened with Sony and there’ll be no more foldable tablets. Guess I’ll have to wait for flexible screens and rollable tablets before I can get the latest technology that also properly portable.