For an innovative company such as Sony, it’s very surprising to see such a fall from grace. The company is still very strong, but it doesn’t seem able to come up with products that people want to buy. Take PS 3.0 for instance. The company was visionary and came up with a device that is still relevant. But Nintendo and Microsoft did take away market-share from Sony. Did Sony have the best device a couple of years ago? Indeed it did. But poor planning and poor executing have dogged the console. The same can be said about Sony netbooks. Sony Lifestyle PC was certainly a niche device, but it didn’t have the success Sony was looking for in the U.S. Sony VAIO VPC-W111XX is actually a decent netbook, but why would anyone want to settle with 2.5 hours of battery life per charge is beyond me.

Sony VAIO X is Sony’s next crack at the netbook market. These devices are expected to be super thin and more powerful than the current line up of netbooks on the market. The Atom Z CPUs used in these devices should help consumers get more out of their netbooks, and the solid state drive is going to be plus. But the price will be too high for most folks, and the jury is still out on Sony when it comes to building energy efficient laptops.

Will Sony VAIO X finally put the company on the map when it comes to netbooks? It’s tough to tell. Sony is a premium brand and “netbook” is not. When you put the two together, it’s tough to see what you get. A device that is too expensive for netbook fans to buy and too small for power users is not going to have much success or will it?