It's quite possible that machine labor cost more than human labor in China. While on a visit in 2002, I've observed some interesting phenomena. For example, in Beijing, a bowl of freshly-cooked soup-and-rice meal in a restaurant (made by humans) cost 5 Yuan, but a can of coke from a vending machine cost 7 Yuan. Also, in another city, opening up a road for maintenance, which (as could be seen) didn't include any delicate maneuvers - just digging - was done by a group of 20 men over a day's work instead of of 30 minutes of a nearby bulldozer. Makes you wonder..

First kill all the lawyers!

My wife, like so many others, seems to have a natural sixth (seventh?) sense for all kinds of bargains and sales. Thus, I fail to see the value of purchasing such a device (unless it's part of a bargain)..

I would mod this whole discussion -5 FLAMEBAIT.

Finally. I was browsing the talkback list waiting for someone to explain why would anyone bother to install a second Linux kernel (of the debian distro, in addition to the android distro) on the same device or (even worse) try to have both kernels running together.
Now it makes sense.

I believe it would make sense if Sony had something up their sleeves. For example, a battery technology that *guarantees* 8 hours of usage. That would be a sales booster.