Sony will in fact be releasing an Android tablet using Google’s latest Honeycomb operating system.
After earlier speculation all but confirmed Sony was working on a new multimedia Android-based tablet, the company’s CEO Howard Stringer announced it does exist and will be out by the end of the year.
It will feature a 9.4-inch display and will be “PlayStation certified” which means it can play original PS One games as well as other titles programmed specifically for touchscreen devices.
This continues Sony’s new found love of Android. The company’s mobile phone partner, Sony Ericsson, ditched Nokia’s outdated Symbian OS for Android last year, and has since become one of the leaders in the market. The Xperia Play, known better as the “PlayStation phone,” is due out this month in the US and could revolutionize mobile gaming.
In addition, Sony will be releasing PlayStation software to all Android 2.3+ enabled phones later this year with a special app called PlayStation Suite.
Not too much is known about the Sony tablet at this point, but we do know it will run Android 3.0, Honeycomb, the optimal version of Google’s platform for tablet devices.
This is sure to increase Sony’s presence in the Android mindset, and could be one of the biggest threats yet to Apple’s current dominance in the market.
