This is not exactly a pure mobile news. Heck, I’m not sure it’s mobile related at all, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Sony is adding bits of convergence to its non mobile phone products that are on display at this year’s CES. What I’m talking about here is a digital camera with WiFi connectivity and a web browser, and camcorders with built-in GPS receivers.
We usually caught the inverse trend – to put everything into a mobile phone. The Japanese giant obviously thinks there’s room to make their other, non-mobile products better by making them WiFi-enabled or GPS receiver-equipped.
The new DLNA-compatible, 10-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-G3 digital camera is the one that comes with WiFi connectivity and a web browser, allowing users to not only upload their photos and videos to the popular video/photo sharing services, but also to browse the web on the DSC-G3’s 3.5-inch screen. AT&T is Sony’s “HotSpot launch partner” for the United States, where interested users can grab the camera in black for about $500.
On the other side, Sony also unveiled three new camcorders — HDR-XR520V, HDR-XR500V and HDR-XR200V — all of which come with a built-in GPS receiver and NAVTEQ maps for video and photo geo-tagging. The three mentioned camcorders are obviously part of the company’s high-end series of devices and will start shipping in March for $1500, $1300, and $1000, respectively.
It’s interesting trend to add some of the modern mobile phone features into other devices to make them more premium (i.e. to justify the high price tag), don’t you think?