Cool device! So it looks like Pocket PC devices will become obsolete if people can have a device of similar size as Pocket PC but with full Windows XP! Don't you think?

Geeeeze. This is great! Leave it to Sony to come up with a great product like this! Any idea if it will be sold in markets other than Japan?

It may compete with Pocket PC, but there is still the issue of software.  Windows XP software are much more costly.  So I don't believe this type of new PCs would mean the death of PPCs.  It's a really neat device though.  And I agree with Arne:  I want it, I want it...

if this would run winXP tablet pc edition...

I don't know if it is coincidence but it's EXACTLY the size of a betacam videocassette and EXACTLY twice the weight. Actually thinking about it - this is too accurate to be coincidence ! So, now you know how Sony designs their gadgets ;-)

LOL... That's cool stuff! You mean the good old Beta tape right? I'm still addicted to Beta (and even still have a Beta VCR) since it was much better than VHS but died because the wrong license politic from Sony... :-( Thanks for sharing it! I should check my Vaio Notebook... Maybe it's 16 times a Video8 tape or something like that!? ;-)

It needs a different user interface.  The desktop version of Windows XP was not designed to be usable on such a small screen.  Also, there aren't any Windows XP applications designed to be used on such a small screen.

That won't kill the ppc because that is not a PDA.

Here are several advantages (or differences) of the ppc vs. miniturized tablet pc's:

1)  PPC's still do a better job in organizing (it's a PDA anyway).  With a miniturized tablet pc, you will have to keep your MS outlook turned on and the comptuer running to give you all those appointment allerts, etc.

2)  Related to #1, keeping it on would mean more power consumption. 

3)  PPC's are still a third or half the price of that thing.

I agree what jayson said, these devices won't take over Pocket PC because the real windows Xp  takes a lot more memory to run, making it a lot more expensive.  Also, Pocket Pc has the advantage of instant power up.

Battery life

[11] Sounds good but what do you mean with "not some dumbed-down Tablet PC OS"? Windows XP for Tablet PCs is a full featured Windows XP with some useful pen-driven enhancements like a kind of "Transcriber", etc... which makes the OS more useful to use it with pen based PCs. :idea:

Also I have to admit that I miss Bluetooth which is my prefered way to connect my mobile PCs to GPRS and 3G/UMTS and using a Bluetooth dongle or CF/PC card isn't that smart for such a device...

[10] I had a chance to play with one of these units first hand here in Japan and I must say......  Whoa!  There are two flavors, one lower end 900 MHz Celeron M 256Mb one and another 1GHz Pentium M 512Mb version.  They run the full Windows XP Home Edition (900MHz) or Professional (1GHz), not some dumbed-down Tablet PC OS.  The screen is slick and beautiful and can pivot landscape or portrait-wise.  You can even hook it up to a full-size monitor and use it as a regular PC.  Battery life is claimed to be 2.5 to 6 hours depending on how it is used.  It also has 802.11 b/g and a compact flash slot.

the Xscale chip is capable of 1Ghz, of course we won't see it for some time to come. if this kind of scaled down TabPC takes a bite out of the PPC market, so be it, it can only prove to motivate the PPC makers to step it up a bit. so i say, cheers to Sony.