Sony's New Business Tab Allows Document Doodling

Sony's new Digital Paper tablet looks like a tricky product to sell. "Sony will have to have a very cogent, compelling market campaign in place to convince mainstream businesses that its Digital Paper tablet is a must-have device," said tech analyst Laura DiDio- "Not many businesses will shell out $1,100 just so you can mark up an electronic document."

Sony has launched a high-end tablet targeted at businesses, which allows users to annotate and draw on documents on an e-Ink screen.

The company is pitching the Digital Paper device as a solution for increasing productivity and streamlining collaboration in paper-heavy environments. It's targeting the legal and higher education sectors, along with corporate boards and government agencies, as potential clients.
Digital Paper has a 13.3-inch display that offers full-screen views of PDF documents in a letter-sized format. The text is sharp and easy to read, according to Sony, with graphics of comparable quality to printed documents or notepads. The tablet includes a touch panel that lets users navigate the menu or move to other pages by touching the screen.

The device is approximately 9/32 inches thick and weighs 12.6 ounces. The display offers resolution of 1,200x1600 pixels, with a 16-level grayscale screen. The lithium-ion battery affords up to three weeks of use on a single charge, said Sony. Digital Paper has 4 GB of internal storage -- enough for around 2,800 PDF files -- with a micro SD expansion slot.
There's an included stylus that allows users to write directly on the screen, and to highlight and delete text. Being able to read and share documents on the device will help organizations and companies save time and money on physically printing and sharing sensitive documentation and materials, Sony maintained.
Sony this week is demonstrating Digital Paper to the legal industry at the American Bar Association Tech Show in Chicago. It has partnered with document management company Worldox to help professionals securely share and access annotated documents and handwritten notes.
It's working with other partners to develop Digital Paper for other markets, with more details in the coming months. Sony did not respond to our request for further details