Sony

Sony's TX200V can now be pre-ordered for $499.99 over at Amazon. There's no official release date yet, but it should be in March. The TX200V is a waterproof and dustproof digital camera with a 18mp sensor, 5X optical zoom and a 3.3" touch AMOLED display. It has a clean glass-covered front design. The TX200V can capture Full-HD videos (and take 13mp stills while doing so) and has a built-in GPS.

There are reports that Sony is increasing its LCD panel purchases from LG Display. Sony stopped their partnership with Samsung (Samsung bought Sony's stake in the LCD joint venture). An LGD official is quoted saying that future talks will also cover OLED TV panel outsourcing.

LG 55EM9600

LG Display is currently gearing up to start producing 55" OLED TV panels. Their 8.5-Gen pilot line will produce around 48,000 monthly panels - which probably won't be enough to outsource to Sony. But LGD already decided to increase their OLED TV panel capacity (by building a new fab or perhaps converting an LCD line). This will take at least a year and half.

Sony announced that they are developing a new display technology called Crystal-LED. Crystal-LED uses ultra-fine RGB LEDs to create a self-emitting display - basically this is similar to OLEDs, but with in-organic LEDs. Sony actually unveiled a prototype 55" Full-HD TV panel at CES 2012:

The TV uses over six-million LEDs and, compared to existing Sony LCD and Plasma displays features a higher contrast ratio (about 3.5 times higher), wider color gamut (about 1.4 times) and faster response time (10 times faster). It should also be more efficient, but this will depend on the image shown (just like in OLEDs).

The Daily Yomiuri posted an article stating that Sony has quit the consumer OLED TV market. The company will continue to produce OLED monitors for the professional/corporate market. This news was reported by a lot of online blogs and sites.

Sony XEL-1

But it's hardly surprising - and it isn't really news... Sony's only OLED TV, the XEL-1 was discontinued back in February 2010. And Sony said several times that it is currently focusing on the professional market, with products such as the 24.5" BVM-F250 broadcasting monitor. Sony still has an active OLED research program. Sony is also one of the founders of Japan Display, a new small/medium display maker. Sony stated that it may give (or license) some of its OLED patents to JD.

In the first two days after its launch, Sony sold 321,000 PSP Vitas - and were very happy with this number. However the following week was rather weak, and Sony sold only 72,500 Vitas in the whole week following the first two days. There were some reports of stock shortages and it seems that some customers are waiting for bug fixes, but in any case this is quite a disappointment for Sony. The Vita will launch in the US and the EU on February 22nd, 2012. You can already pre-order it over at Amazon.com ($249 for the Wi-Fi model and $299 for the 3G/Wi-fi model).

The Vita features a 960x544 5" touch AMOLED display (made by Samsung), a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and a quad-core PowerVR (SGX543MP4+) GPU (Sony says that it is as powerful as a PS3), Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and 3G (AT&T, optional).

Sony's HMZ-T1 is finally shipping in the US for $899. Sony's HMD features dual 1280x720 0.7" OLED microdisplays (made by Sony) - offering the same experience as watching a 750" display from 20m. The unit comes with an external processor box offering HDMI intput and output (you cannot use the HMD without the processor box).

Update: according to Reuters, Sony shipped 321,400 Vita units in the first two days and are reportedly very happy with these numbers, but the following week sales were rather low

Sony's PSP Vita, announced back in January 2011, is finally shipping in Japan. According to reports Sony saw "massive pre-order demands" for the Vita. They originally planned to ship 500,000 units in Japan in the first day but have added 200,000 units - so first day shipments may reach 700,000 units. The Vita will launch in the US and the EU on February 22nd, 2012. You can already pre-order it over at Amazon.com ($249 for the Wi-Fi model and $299 for the 3G/Wi-fi model).

The Vita features a 960x544 5" touch AMOLED display (made by Samsung), a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and a quad-core PowerVR (SGX543MP4+) GPU (Sony says that it is as powerful as a PS3), Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and 3G (AT&T, optional).