Sony Ericsson might join the tablet race with reports suggesting that the company could unveil its own tablet computer as early as this summer.
Sony Ericsson, apart from Nokia, is the only major handset vendor that hasn’t shown any serious intent regarding tablets.
Sony’s chief executive officer Howard Stringer told a Nikkei newspaper that his company will launch a tablet by the end of summer. The tablet will run Android 3.0 Honeycomb.
Another Japanese publication ‘AV Watch’ has quoted a Sony spokesperson saying that the company will release a tablet “this year”. The representative said details on the device and launch will be revealed later.
At the consumer electronics show held in January, Sony’s deputy president Kunimasa Suzuki said that the company will aim for the 2nd position in the tablet space, and that it will develop its own content for the tablet. “We have television and film studios working very hard to create content specifically for it,” he added.
The tablet space is already flooded with Sony Ericsson’s arch rivals Motorola, Samsung, LG, HTC, and Asus; and other smaller companies have already launched their tablets or are in the final stages of launching one. It’s high time, therefore, for Sony Ericsson to at least make its tablet plans clear.