When Sony sold its PC business arm Vaio last year, the new company decided to concentrate on the Japanese market instead of on a global scale. Now, tech enthusiasts and consumers may soon again see Vaio products on the market.
According to reports, Japan Industrial Partners, the new owners of Vaio Corp., has already picked the United States and Brazil as the first countries outside of Japan to market their new offerings.
Veering away from its signature laptop products, Vaio's first venture for a jumpstarted global presence is the Vaio Z Canvas. The company is advancing the Z Canvas as a "monster tablet," with a detachable keyboard, an i7 processor, configurable up to 16 GB of RAM, and up to 256 GB of SSD storage. Coming to the U.S. by Oct. 5, the Vaio Z Canvas will be up for pre-orders by next month.
Meanwhile, Vaio will also be overhauling its marketing in terms of the global market. Instead of aiming for high sales volume, the company will be vying for a niche in specialized markets. According to Vaio's chief executive Yoshimi Ota, the old Vaio under Sony focused on market share, setting aside profitability.
Ota told The Wall Street Journal, "At the new Vaio, I ask every project team to make realistic goals and be accountable."
However, Ota added that realistically, Vaio will be able to compete more aggressively in niche markets, such as those in the creative industry – designers and graphic artists – who are using specialized mobile workstations.
Ota stressed, "We are not interested in cheap models for everyone."
Aside from mobile workstations, Ota also divulged that other niche markets will be explored by Vaio. The different industries will be targeted with lineups such as wearable gadgets, communication devices, and for heavy industries, machineries and factory-automatons with artificial intelligence.
