Sony Corp is already late to the game with its first tablet, which hits stores this month, more than a year and a half after Apple Inc launched the blockbuster iPad and almost a year since Samsung Electronics Co Ltd came out with the GalaxyTab. Samsung's Galaxy occupies the No.2 slot in tablets that Sony is targeting.
Reviewers and analysts highlighted a high price and features that suggested Sony would remain an also-ran rather than a leader in the tablet market. Two versions of Sony's main tablet cost $499 and $599, the same price as two lower-end Apple iPad models.
"Consumers want tablets, but they are not prepared to pay the same amount they'd pay for an iPad for something that's not an iPad," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. "Despite the brand and different design, with its pricing so close to the iPad, it will be challenging for Sony."
Once a symbol of Japan's high-tech might, the maker of the Walkman and PlayStation gaming console is struggling under the weight of its money-losing TV division and badly needs the boost of a hit product.
"Sony really must be in the tablet market and must succeed," said Mito Securities electronics analyst Keita Wakabayashi.
Worldwide tablet shipments are forecast to more than triple this year to 60 million tablets and then rise to 275.3 million units by 2015, according to a report this month from research firm IHS iSuppli.
Sony's new tablets run on Google Inc's Android software, like the GalaxyTab and many other tablets from Acer Inc , Asustek Computer Inc and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc .
It is trying to distinguish its tablets from other Android players with features such as having one model function as a universal remote, while another folds like a clamshell and offers access to some first generation PlayStation games.
Backed by a disco beat during an event in Berlin to unveil the devices on Wednesday, Sony CEO Howard Stringer brushed off concerns the company waited too long to get into the tablet market.
"We want to prove it's not who makes it first that counts but who makes it better," Stringer said.
Based on the initial reception, Sony has failed in that regard.
Tech reviewers credited Sony for coming up with a unique curvy design for the S tablet, which resembles a folded-back magazine and makes it easier to hold with one hand, but the quality of the hardware was questioned.
A review on the Gizmodo tech blog called the tablet "extremely plasticky" and said its screen scratched more easily than other tablets.
Sony vowed in January to become the world's No. 2 tablet maker behind Apple by 2012 and Sony executives stuck to that ambitious claim ahead of the tablet launch.