Do you still remember VAIO, the laptop brand that Sony sold off last year? Even though VAIO products are no longer available in Malaysia, the brand which now has become a stand-alone company is still well and alive in Japan. In fact, VAIO has decided to expand its business by entering the smartphone market, according to an announcement that the company made earlier this week.
However, VAIO is not venturing into the business alone, as it has collaborated with a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) company called Japan Communications in order to deliver the product to the market. Information regarding VAIO’s new smartphone is still scarce at the moment but it will apparently feature a 5-inch display and running on the Android operating system.
Not only that, the new VAIO smartphone will also be positioned in the mid-range market since it will be priced in between premium and low-end phones. However, we doubt that it will be made available outside of Japan since the market scope for both VAIO and Japan Communications are still limited to Japan.
Nevertheless, we are still curious to see how VAIO smartphone make an impact in Japanese market. Not only that, it will also be very interesting to see then new device will fare against Xperia smartphone from VAIO’s former parent company, Sony .
[Source: Japan Communications, The Japan Times, Nikkei. Image: VAIO, Thomas Hawk – used under Creative Commons license]
