14 DAY TRIAL // Sony reportedly plans to increase its tablet lineup in 2012 with a new VAIO branded sliding slate that will probably measure 10.1-inches in size and that will be available in two versions, one running Android 4.0 and the other Windows 8.
When it announced the Tablet S and Tablet P (back then known as the S1 and S2) in April, Sony said that its roadmap calls for three tablets to be introduced in 2011.
Outside of the two devices mentioned above, the third tablet was said to be a slider that would come into the VAIO series.
A prototype of the so called Freestyle Hybrid PC was presented shortly thereafter, but little else was heard about this tablet since those first initial sightings.
Presumed dead, this project has popped up yet again in a report by Mobility Magazin, which claims that in 2012 the Japanese company will out a sliding tablet that improves upon the specs of that original design.
The delay seems to have been caused by Sony’s wish to wait for a more capable operating system to arrive, which seems to have happened now with Android 4.0 and with the upcoming Windows 8 from Microsoft.
In fact, the report mentions that Sony want to build two slightly different version of its VAIO tablet, one running Google’s mobile operating system while the other one will use the ARM port of Windows 8.
Little is known about their specs at this point in time, but it appears that Sony has decided to grow the diagonal of the screen from the 9.4-inches, of the original Freestyle Hybrid PC design, to a more common 10.1-inches, which seems to be the standard size for Android tablet nowadays.
The name of the SoC maker who will have the privilege of powering this VAIO tablet is also not yet known, but it’s possible for Sony to go with an in-house developed chip similar to the quad-core CPU found inside the PlayStation Vita console.
We expect more info about this VAIO sliding tablet to be made public during MWC 2012, which will take palce in early March.