Business & Finance

Sony to take on Apple with launch of first tablet PCs

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The new gadgets will use an operating system based on Android 3.0, Kunimasa Suzuki, deputy president of the consumer products and services group, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.

One of the models will have two screens, he added.

Suzuki raised eyebrows in January when he told reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January that Sony was aiming for the No.2 spot in the tablet market behind Apple within a year, even though it had yet to put a product on the market.

The company has emphasised the need to differentiate its tablet from rivals, even if that takes time.

Sales of tablet devices are expected to quadruple to about 294 million units between 2011 and 2015, with almost half that made up by Android-based, according to research firm Gartner.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011

Copyright Reuters, 2011