@Auzburner: Everyone from Japan had a dozen thumbs the size of pins on their left hand, so this may be the most perfect mock-up ever.
In all seriousness, though, the real question is whether a PSP type combo with a phone would do anything to help Sony in their cell phone business. It is an especially critical question given their (at best) partial success in the gaming industry presently. I think we all have serious doubts, no matter how good the phone would turn out to be.
Considering that the Moto ROKR went over about as well as donkey punching the Pope. Considering that Apple risked ruining the iTunes brand on a Moto handset that (SURPRISE) did not work as advertised, I don't blame Sony for being gun shy.
Prestigious brand? The PSP, while moderately popular, suffers from numerous shortcomings, not the least of which is Sony's complete and utter lack of faith in their consumers.
The PSP could have been the de facto PMP/Portable Gaming System, had Sony been a little more flexible with storage options and customization, and had they not been so damned insistent on the utter failure that is UMD.
Sony has a marginal track-record, at best, with portable devices. They can't rest on their 80s Walkman laurels forever. Few would argue that the Playstation console is a great thing, but that doesn't make the name a "prestigious brand" when their very own PSP is doing naught but collecting dust on the shelves of so many. Making it a remote control for the PS3 is "neat" but certainly not what people were praying for when they bought one years ago. "Gee,I hope some day in the glorious future, I can use this tiny portable gaming system to do useless things with a next-gen Playstation console!"
Ericsson would be doing Sony a huge favor by incorporating PS branding into their phones. The cross pollination of phone with PSP/PMP and inter-platform coordination could possibly bring it up to speed.
I think Sony still has pipedreams of making the PSP a dominant mobile platform, but they've missed that boat by making it both too feature-costly, and also completely gimped. Much like building a 475hp hotrod kit car in one's basement, only to realize you can't get it outside now, then wincing as you see your friends buzzing around the neighborhood on lawnmower go-karts.
Sony's various divisions practically compete rather than collaborate with each other. Witness their video divisions, where high end prosumer models produced by their consumer division compete with low end models produced by their pro division. Sony is the USSR of electronics companies.
06/27/09
06/28/09
In all seriousness, though, the real question is whether a PSP type combo with a phone would do anything to help Sony in their cell phone business. It is an especially critical question given their (at best) partial success in the gaming industry presently. I think we all have serious doubts, no matter how good the phone would turn out to be.
01/16/09
01/16/09
The PSP could have been the de facto PMP/Portable Gaming System, had Sony been a little more flexible with storage options and customization, and had they not been so damned insistent on the utter failure that is UMD.
Sony has a marginal track-record, at best, with portable devices. They can't rest on their 80s Walkman laurels forever. Few would argue that the Playstation console is a great thing, but that doesn't make the name a "prestigious brand" when their very own PSP is doing naught but collecting dust on the shelves of so many. Making it a remote control for the PS3 is "neat" but certainly not what people were praying for when they bought one years ago. "Gee,I hope some day in the glorious future, I can use this tiny portable gaming system to do useless things with a next-gen Playstation console!"
Ericsson would be doing Sony a huge favor by incorporating PS branding into their phones. The cross pollination of phone with PSP/PMP and inter-platform coordination could possibly bring it up to speed.
I think Sony still has pipedreams of making the PSP a dominant mobile platform, but they've missed that boat by making it both too feature-costly, and also completely gimped. Much like building a 475hp hotrod kit car in one's basement, only to realize you can't get it outside now, then wincing as you see your friends buzzing around the neighborhood on lawnmower go-karts.
01/16/09
01/16/09