• Wall Street Journal, Friday, March 5, 2010 10:51 AM

Sony is developing a smart phone capable of downloading and playing videogames and a portable device that shares characteristics of netbooks, e-book readers and handheld-game machines, sources tell Daisuke Wakabayashi and Yukari Iwatani Kane. Both will work with the online media platform presently dubbed Sony Online Service that is the company's answer to Apple's iTunes.

The hardware products should launch in 2010 although many details remain to be ironed out. They are key components of CEO Howard Stringer's turnaround plans, Wakabayashi and Iwatani Kane write. "That's the vision, but it's still not quite clear what specific steps Sony will take to achieve that, especially when iPad and other highly capable mobile devices are crowding the market," says Mizuho Investors Securities analyst Nobuo Kurahashi.

Meanwhile, the New York Post's John Paczkowski re-reports rumors that iPad production may be slightly delayed, or that production volume is less than anticipated, although as with most things Apple, nobody knows for sure and Apple ain't saying.

Wait. Hold the iPhone. This word just in from PR Newswire: "Apple today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the U.S. on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models."

In other news on the digital hardware, Bloomberg's Amy Thomson and Dina Bass report that Verizon Wireless will introduce two phones from Microsoft in a few moths that are targeted at teenagers. Manufactured by Sharp and carrying the Microsoft and Verizon Wireless brands, the phone reportedly will have easy access to social-networking sites and include keyboards for text messaging, a source says.

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