Made for field engineers... (Score 1)

This was originally made and offered in Japan around 2-2.5 years ago. It was made as a "look what we can do" demo/prototype with no initial plans to actually produce it. Some people expressed an interest in it - specifically field engineers and insurance companies and they made it in limited edition. These people wanted it for working in the field and liked the idea of being able to take pictures/video, see on screen what they look like, edit them if necessary, and email back to the office. Sony sold out that initial batch and figured that if they sold out the first batch maybe there is an untapped market. They have been making them and upgrading them ever since....