Sony Designing Mobile Phone/PSP Hybrid to Better Compete Against iPhone?

[windywoo]

Can you give an exemple of "Apple propaganda" ?

Erm, he's being sarcastic. Can't you see that his post is pro iPhone?

[chrono1081]

I'd be pro iPhone if mine would freaking leave China already :(

It does say "Prepared for Shipment" so maybe thats some good news :)

[*LTD*]

I'd be pro iPhone if mine would freaking leave China already :(

It does say "Prepared for Shipment" so maybe thats some good news :)

Dunno man, it might take a while. I think it's under the potatoes. ;)


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3113/3146973405_fe319482e2.jpg

[BongoBanger]

My comments for Ms refer to their running behind wagging their tails and creating the zunes and zune hds and thinking they are hip, I was referring to their let apple do and will copy it then attitude, their "I just finally copied the dock in 7 and I think I am innovating because I actually copied myself in windows 1.1 with a dock I never evolved as an idea" attitude, which is also demonstrated by sonny too

That's silly. MS innovate plenty of stuff, however most of it's at corporate rather than consumer level. To suggest MS aren't innovative is ridiculous - Business Week's survey shows them as the fourth highest company rated for innovation. Apple are number one which means they're more innovative; however it doesn't follow that MS aren't innovative at all.

And if we're talking 'copying' then why is OS X only now getting round to being truly 64 bit when Windows has been for years? See, I can make silly analogies too.

As for what Gruber said and the fact that the market conditions were different, your argument doesn't really make sense. It's exactly what he is saying, that apple forged a way and created a market and sony sat like a duck and....ok I won't get graphic on what they did but you get my drift...and watched their walkman get trampled without being able to have a VISION for the future.

Yes. This has nothing to do with mobile gaming though. Gruber is right about their apalling lack of development and their focus on stupid technologies like memory sticks and UMD; he's wrong to try and tie this into mobile phone gaming which Sony stayed away from for very good reasons.

As for nokia, you are wrong, nokia have STILL a great stronghold on both phones and smartphones, and to be frank that's the only platform I personally would consider instead of the iphone. IN NO WAY are they getting their butts kicked as sony erickson. Erickson was better positioned than nokia actually and sony managed to mess them up to the point of almost obliterating them from teh map.

I think you misunderstand - Nokia made an absolute bollocks of the mobile phone gaming market with the original N-Gage. It was poorly executed and unintuitive and back in the day led to the internet meme 'You bought an N-Gage, didn't you?' when ever anybody posted something silly on a message board. On the other hand Nokia are still by far the most dominant phone company on the planet (although they have virtually no presence in the US), a position they aren't going to give up anytime soon. You'll note from my signature I use a Nokia 5800 which is better for my needs than the iPhone and which outsells it in nearly every market outwith the US.

[OS-Snail]

well,
they had (have) the "walkman" brand and it came out nothing...
they have Sony-BMG (the content) and it came out nothing...
then a couple of years later they brought the PSP successfully...but a based on a proprietary system and they even restricted the internet abilities...!!!
i'm sure: now, 4 years later, they have learned their lesson ;-)

[OS-Snail]

well,
they had (have) the "walkman" brand and it came out nothing...
they have Sony-BMG (the content) and it came out nothing...
then a couple of years later they brought the PSP successfully...but a based on a proprietary system and they even restricted the internet abilities...!!!
i'm sure: now, 4 years later, they have learned their lesson better ;-)

[krye]

One word Sony: pleeeeeeeeeeze!

You guys haven't come out with anything innovative in over 20 years. (Sorry, Blu Ray is not an innovation.) That company is so top heavy, that by the time they've responded to the latest trend, they've missed the mark by about 5 years.

[dant19]

Sony are, in my opinion, a company that should be taken seriously on a statement like this. Anyone remember SEGA? You know, the megadrive? :P

Everyone thought that Sony would in no way compete with a games console monster like SEGA. And were Nintendo kicking around about then as well? That was until the Playstation was released and became one of the best selling consoles of all time (I have no sources for that claim, but I am sure its true. Please feel free to disprove it). Gamecube....well, I think that rogue squadron was the only good thing to come out of that purple cube....In my opinion....

So when somebody who is pretty successful in the gaming market (PS3 is still a flipping good machine, PS2, was that the best selling of all time?) and produces some pretty solid mobile phones (sony-erricson, ok, not inovative, but they're not the worst), I have to sit back and think, yeah, this might work.

It might not.

But I think you can agree the position they are in is not a bad place to be in order to produce a device like this.

So good luck sony. Though, I should point out, I wont be trading in my iPhone for one. Sorry. I dont care what it does. Yes I am a fan boy. But good luck all the same.

Dan

[RAGING DEMON]

I DONT UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE MENTALITIES OF APPLE FANBOYS! WHY OH WHY IN THEIR EYES, CAN NO-ONE MAKE A PRODUCT BETTER THAN APPLE!
ITS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULUS, DONT GET ME WRONG, I LOVE APPLE PRODUCTS JUST AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY ( IPHONE 3G,IPHONE 3GS, MACBOOK WHITE, AND OLD POWERBOOK ) BUT TO SUGGEST ANYTHING OTHER COMPANIES MAKE , ARE RUBBISH IS JUST PLAIN DUMB! TAKE THE MUSIC DEVICE, IPOD AND ZUNE FOR EXAMPLE, SURELY THEY BOTH DO THE EXACT SAME THING, AND PLAY MUSIC RIGHT? THEN WHY DO SOME :apple: FANBOYS SAY THE ZUNE IS RUBBISH !

[*LTD*]

I DONT UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE MENTALITIES OF APPLE FANBOYS! WHY OH WHY IN THEIR EYES, CAN NO-ONE MAKE A PRODUCT BETTER THAN APPLE!
ITS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULUS, DONT GET ME WRONG, I LOVE APPLE PRODUCTS JUST AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY ( IPHONE 3G,IPHONE 3GS, MACBOOK WHITE, AND OLD POWERBOOK ) BUT TO SUGGEST ANYTHING OTHER COMPANIES MAKE , ARE RUBBISH IS JUST PLAIN DUMB! TAKE THE MUSIC DEVICE, IPOD AND ZUNE FOR EXAMPLE, SURELY THEY BOTH DO THE EXACT SAME THING, AND PLAY MUSIC RIGHT? THEN WHY DO SOME :apple: FANBOYS SAY THE ZUNE IS RUBBISH !

The problem is no one's really done anything in years, except for Apple.

The Zune (current) competes with an iPod that has been out of date for years, and rendered obsolescent by the iPod Touch. The Zune was already behind when it was released.

Quite simply, the rest of the industry seems to be sitting on their collective ass. For years now. It takes an outfit like Apple to come along and up everyone's game. And then they're still behind.

Eve when an outfit comes along like Palm, full of Apple engineers and talent, they still can't manage to truly turn the tables. It's always "just good enough."

It really comes down to attitude. What happens when designers and engineers sit down at roundtable discussions. Dollars-to-donuts the ones at Apple are quite different. When Bertrand Serlet came right out at WWDC and said "we approach this from an entirely different place", that pretty much says it all. He wasn't kidding. That's a powerful declaration, one you make when you have the goods to back it up. Apple sets out to provide a simple, easy, satisfying experience with their products while remaining faithful to current tech. They don't blindly stuff every feature and widget into their products. Anyone can slap on features. Not everyone can implement them in such a way as to make them easy, fun, and satisfying to use. All we need from the rest of the industry is a bit more attention to elegance and detail, a bit more attention to the process that occurs from the time a person picks up a device to the time the desired action is executed. That's all.

Don't give me something that's just useful. Give me something I actually WANT to use and look forward to using again. And then give me a whole family of products and services that exemplify this - right across the board. I want a homogenous experience: OS X is the iPhone is the Mac is the iPod Touch is OS X is the Mac is the iPhone is MobileMe is iLife is OS X is the iPod Touch is the Mac, etc.

[NoSmokingBandit]

This has Epic FAIL written all over it.

Sadly, it's about 3-4 years too late.

Of course. The iPhone is the last phone that will ever be used by anyone ever. Every other phone company should just give up because we all know that nothing will ever be better than the iPhone.

:rolleyes:

[Bubba Satori]

Can you give an exemple of "Apple propaganda" ?


"It just works."

[irnchriz]

Everybody here seems to act like apple has totally won and the psp is a failure. Yet the article mentions that 50 million psp's have been sold, that's more than iPhone and iPod Touch combined and doesn't seem so bad after all.

If sony can create a phone that is compatible with all existing PSP games, that could be a huge advantage.
I love my iPhone, but I think it's a lousy device for most genres of games. Tilting the screen to steer a car? come on.


50 Million PSP sold in 4 years
40 Million iPhone/Touch sold in 2 years.

At that rate it will be:
100 Million PSP sold in 8 years
100 Million iPhone/touch in 5 years years

[RAGING DEMON]

50 Million PSP sold in 4 years
40 Million iPhone/Touch sold in 2 years.

At that rate it will be:
100 Million PSP sold in 8 years
100 Million iPhone/touch in 5 years years

YEP, ESSENTIALLY YOUR COMPARING 2 DIFFERENT PRODUCTS FROM :apple: COMPARED TO A SINGLE SONY PSP!! AND CONSIDERING THERES ALSO ANOTHER SPANNER IN THE WORKS, I THINK ITS CALLED A DS, PSP HAS DONE VERY WELL!!!

[*LTD*]

Of course. The iPhone is the last phone that will ever be used by anyone ever. Every other phone company should just give up because we all know that nothing will ever be better than the iPhone.

:rolleyes:

That describes the phenomenon of the iPod well enough. It burst onto the scene in 2001 and has ruled ever since.

It can certainly happen with the iPhone, and it looks like it's well on its way.

The market in which the iPhone is in requires somethng *better*, much better, than the iPhone to really gain measurable, appreciable traction. "Just good enough" is absolutely *not* good enough. The iPhone has made it that muhch harder for the competition to truly stand apart. And releasing a device that will get enough attention and interest has become that much more difficult as well. Most have already lost at the drawing-board.

[guzhogi]

Of course. The iPhone is the last phone that will ever be used by anyone ever. Every other phone company should just give up because we all know that nothing will ever be better than the iPhone.

:rolleyes:

That reminds me of how so many people have the "Apple should just close up its computer business because MS won w/ Windows, there's no possible way Macs can compete. So Apple should give it up making computer and stick with the iPod" attitude. Sure, Windows has like 10x the marketshare and a few features I wish Mac OS X did, but that doesn't mean 1 size fits all & is the best in every single category 100% of the time. I have quite a few friends who would rather have it easier by having 1 OS for everything (which means easier to manage, more compatibility), rather than take the best option. Example: Macs are thought to be better at graphics while Linux is better at servers, and Windows is better at games. So sorry if 1 size does NOT fit all. [/rant]

[diamond.g]

This is true to an extent. But if you look at the numbers there is a different story to be told. For example ps2 just sold its 50,000,000 unit. He price started at 299 and made its way down to 99. Ps3 has sold 28,000,000 units at 399.99 and 499.99... Pretty good. If ps3 drops price to 199 it will become very successful.

The PS2 has sold 100 million units (and it did it a while ago).


I am curious to see if the iPhone has an affect on the handheld market. So far there doesn't appear to be any games on the iPhone that are compelling enough to buy the unit for (system sellers in the console world). Sure there are apps that are appealing, but nothing in the game department that you can't get elsewhere.

The game pad for the iPhone is a nice idea, but if you can't sell it with a game or with the unit there are no guarantees that it will be available for use.

[LagunaSol]

So far there doesn't appear to be any games on the iPhone that are compelling enough to buy the unit for (system sellers in the console world).

I'm waiting for Starcraft (or a Starcraft equivalent) for iPhone. A WOW-type game could also do very well on the iPhone (imagine a truly great MMORPG on the iPhone - anywhere, anytime play). Blizzard could make a bundle of cash from either (or better yet, both).

STARCRAFT FOR IPHONE PLEASE!

[Speedy2]

Erm, he's being sarcastic. Can't you see that his post is pro iPhone?

If I may humbly correct you, I am pro facts.

[Speedy2]

50 Million PSP sold in 4 years
40 Million iPhone/Touch sold in 2 years.

At that rate it will be:
100 Million PSP sold in 8 years
100 Million iPhone/touch in 5 years years


Only that iPod touch / iPhone sales are growing fast, in contrast to PSP sales, which remained flat.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable#Sales

[diamond.g]

I'm waiting for Starcraft (or a Starcraft equivalent) for iPhone. A WOW-type game could also do very well on the iPhone (imagine a truly great MMORPG on the iPhone - anywhere, anytime play). Blizzard could make a bundle of cash from either (or better yet, both).

STARCRAFT FOR IPHONE PLEASE!

I would like Starcraft (or Warcraft) for the iPhone. I guess the problem is it wouldn't be exclusive (maybe WoW would but that would require a pretty good internet connection so it is possible there would be no 3G/EDGE play).

I think strategy games would be perfect for the iPhone, but it appears there aren't any compelling ones out (especially with multiplayer). Turn-based RPGs would be easy to do as well, but the storyline would have to be quite compelling.

[Stately]

Here we go...Sony...Too late...but we'll see.... maybe they'll surprise us, but I doubt it.

Go :apple:

Yeah I doubt it as well. This last update to me, doesn't seem like much of anything. The mockup that was going around (below) blows it away. In my opinion, Sony lacks heavily on the creativity side of the new PSP. I couldn't imagine them creating a PSP phone.

[donny77]

The casual handheld market already exists with the DS, so is the iPhone competing with the PSP or DS? Or neither? Or both?
I know! Apple will "reinvent" gaming so they arent even on the same level as other devices!

The handheld gaming market works great as it is. You have casual gamers playing MarioKart and Nintendogs on the DS, and you have more serious gamers playing God of War and Crisis Core on PSP. The iPhone is only going to attract the group of people that want a phone that can play cheesy time-wasting games while they are stuck in traffic. This does not compete with the PSP at all, and only steps on the DS's toes a little, but apple is going to ahve to do something drastic to stop the DS from taking over the world.

At first RIAA and the MPAA wanted to just blame piracy for decreasing revenues. Many studies have shown though that the rise of the Nintendo, Playstation and XBOX have contributed greatly to the decline of music and movie sales. It's a story about economics. Both dollars and time. We have so much money we can spend on "entertainment" and we have only so much time for "entertainment." Just because the item is in a different market, it may be competing for the same dollars. I don't need to play quake 3 when I'm out and about. But I may want to play something during some downtime. Sony is right to start planning now, because the iPhone/iPod Touch is a threat to their business. No, they aren't going to lose the hardcore gamers, but it's everyone else that pays the bills.

[*LTD*]

The iPhone is only going to attract the group of people that want a phone that can play cheesy time-wasting games while they are stuck in traffic.

So in other words, you've never played iPhone games.

[Jon the Heretic]

PSP + Telephone? This is a joke, right?

I hope not. Sounds like a great idea to compete with my very own iPod Touch (which I love to death). I am personally thrilled Apple has some real competition in the Palm Pre and in Google Android phones, and so tired of following Microsoft's Me Too efforts, which almost always equal (functional) mediocrity (status quo---so exciting). Bring it on Sony.

This "too late" stuff is B.S. Everyone likes to beat up on Sony these days--it's become a cliche, the way it used to be for Apple. I love Apple and stuck with them through thick and thin; Sony is my (distant) second place favorite, and I still think they have the right mojo despite all of the media sheeple wanting to see them fleeced (the same way they called for Apple's demise before the iPod, for well, nearly Apple's entire corporate existence until relatively recently).

Apple was "late" to the mp3 player market---I had 2 mp3 players before the iPod. But they hit the right formula with the iPod. "Late" was secondary to "just right". Same with the iPhone and smartphones. Doing it right matters most. Being later actually lets you sniff out what will or won't work (the Microsoft approach...and while always mediocre, they rarely truly fail).

Right now, Apple has well-deserved dominance in both music player and Smartphones (well, increasingly so), because they have great products and can think strategically about the whole end-to-end user experience in terms of an ecosystem.

I think Sony does release great products (not as good as Apple's in the same category, but they are a tough act to follow), but it is really the ecosystem they and EVERYONE ELSE has been fumbling in. Everyone is trying to copy iTunes and the App Store but they are just mediocre copies at best. Sony alas has too much skin in media to compete with either, as they will always try to skew everything to Sony pictures and related media. Sony would be better served by not playing Me Too and just focusing on the products, rather than poorly copying the whole Apple ecosystem. Sony may not be a closed ecosystem kind of company; but there is also a market also for open ecosystems where you create a great product and let others find users for it. Sony doesn't get this yet, which is why they killed Open Remote Play from the Mac/PC last week with the PS3 firmware upgrade. They are envious of Apple's closed ecosystem, but it is LESS closed than Sony right now (you don't need a Mac to use an iPhone for example, Sony).

As a product, I think a Sony Ericsson phone with PSP could be a great niche product. I can't wait to see what they do with it. Maybe it doesn't need a big expensive data plan like the iPhone, but just combines two quality products so you have less to carry, and the need for a data plan being optional (can't escape from that damn plan on the Pre either). Options are good; bring on the innovation.

[Jon the Heretic]

I can't believe there are so many PS3 bashers in this thread especially idiotic ones with comments like, "Price is too high." If the price is so high, why did you buy an Apple computer? An Apple MP3 player? An Apple TV? All of these things compared to the other guy are EXPENSIVE. Yet you get the best quality out of these products (excluding Apple TV). Sony's PS3 is by far the best console out this generation of consoles.



I don't play a lot of games any longer...recession-era economy means I work crazy hours and with 2 small kids, who has free time? At night, I watch my Tivo HD (w/ Netflix).

That said, I am very pleased with my Sony 46" HD TV (bought last year from Fry's for the same price as a Vizio), and my PS3 ($300 a year ago with a Sony Card, the card was used only once). While I prefer to stream video from Netflix out of laziness, NOTHING beats Blu ray for quality. If you think upconverted DVD is nearly the same, your TV or your eyes are betraying you---full 1080p on a large panel is very nice indeed. I will only watch SciFi on Blu-ray. This is why I bought a PS3---I figured it was $200 for the BD player (with great DVD upconversion, too) and a $100 plus a 2nd controller for a game machine that also played my old PS1 titles (I skipped the PS2, so could care less).

As a game machine, my family enjoys it quite a bit, especially my 7-year old boy. For just $100 (over the cost of what a BD player is really worth), what a deal for us. It has the best quality graphics I have seen (as long as you are NOT using an XBox port as your comparison...as a lot time Mac user, I can tell you ports are poo), and no ring of death; how refreshingly quality!

While I love the Wii controller concept and game play user experience, good grief, what an underpowered machine. I mean really; it was out of date when released. I find Nintendo's approach to be scrappy and refreshing, but it was not what I was looking for. I had just bought a 1080p set and buying something that could do 480p at best seemed just bizarre to me; and yes, I wanted Blu ray (worth $200 to me, what my first DVD player cost).

Apparently, I AM Sony's target audience: someone who wanted a super multimedia box with some kick ass games but not a gamer. I am interested to see if they add reverse engineer the Wii controller experience for the PS3---but use the Eye doesn't sound right to me. We will see.

Want some negs on the PS3? I do think their Web browser is complete crap; Hulu on the PS3 works only to show it as a feature, but in practice, it sucks unless you use Play On with a PC (and it works very well; but the need to use 2 machines is just dumb). I wish Sony'd just take Webkit and port it to Cell (using multiple Cells), and give up trying to sell me movies on their store. Apple is my fave company but I won't touch AppleTV, much less Sony's movie store. Buy or port Boxee, openly embrace it, and complete the multimedia center transition the PS3 was destined to be.

PS3 is a great box; sure it could be so much better if they went Webkit & Boxee, but still a winner for my family.

[MacFly123]

I'm sorry but Apple jumped on the bandwagon they just had a great product. Apple saw that the Smart Phone market was dying and that Blackberry was taking advantage of this. Apple saw a way for them to take Blackberry out by innovating a very profitable market. Apple jumped on the bandwagon and took it by Storm. Sony has been in this market along long time. I hate the fact that people here are acting like Apple invented the Smart Phone. Apple just innovated it. Now Apple needs to re inovate there own Smart Phone because even those this "3GS" is out its still the same damn iPhone we saw years ago. Its time for some competition to force Apple to move forward and not just stand still.

Here is the difference... Apple jumps after many have failed and then they innovate and succeede immensely!

Sony is one of the many that has failed for a long long time and now that Apple has redefined it all they try to jump on the new bandwagon that Apple created just like everybody else! :rolleyes:

No, Apple did not invent smart phones, but they did in fact really reinvent the smart phone and create the true mobile computing revolution that we are now in the midst of!

BTW: for those of you who have been to Japan you'll probably know that the iPhone is somewhat of a joke there. If you have seen the innovation in the Japanese Cell Phone Culture (notice I say culture and not market. It is a culture in itself) then you will see genuinely "Smart" phones.

This Japan stuff is all debatable. You sound like the manufactured reports that tried to make the iPhone fail in Japan when it was launched, when in reality there is no phone that beats its interface and user experience there or in the world!

[*LTD*]

Apple reshaped the entire smartphone industry almost overnight.

Compare what you have today to what there was barely two years ago. Monumental difference. And Apple was the catalyst for ALL of it. Not some, not most, but ALL of it. The indsutry was asleep when Apple turned up with the iPhone. Blackberry e-mail machines that could barely surf the web were the best anyone had done.

iPhone = the iPod phenomenon all over again.

[Dagless]

Apple reshaped the entire smartphone industry almost overnight.

Compare what you have today to what there was barely two years ago. Monumental difference. And Apple was the catalyst for ALL of it. Not some, not most, but ALL of it. The indsutry was asleep when Apple turned up with the iPhone. Blackberry e-mail machines that could barely surf the web were the best anyone had done.

iPhone = the iPod phenomenon all over again.

Yup, they made a fantastic phone that really did change everything. A smartphone for the masses.
But what it isn't is competition against the DS and PSP. The games just aren't as good with the depth as the aforementioned consoles. This is probably where Sony has the benefit, though I don't think there would be a huge market for such a thing. At best Sony should just create a platform for their upcoming mobiles, a rival to Nokia's N-Gage but also have the apps compatible with the original PSP too.

[BongoBanger]

This Japan stuff is all debatable. You sound like the manufactured reports that tried to make the iPhone fail in Japan when it was launched, when in reality there is no phone that beats its interface and user experience there or in the world!

Actually the sales are a matter of public record. As in Russia, to say they've been disappointing is an understatement.

The iPhone is king of the US market. This is not the case worldwide where there is considerably more choice.

Apple reshaped the entire smartphone industry almost overnight.

Absolutely true.

iPhone = the iPod phenomenon all over again.

Nope. The market is totally different - Apple will carve out a respectable slice of the market but they won't dominate it in the same way they do the PMP market as there are too many established players.

[aygie]

I don't play a lot of games any longer...recession-era economy means I work crazy hours and with 2 small kids, who has free time? At night, I watch my Tivo HD (w/ Netflix).

That said, I am very pleased with my Sony 46" HD TV (bought last year from Fry's for the same price as a Vizio), and my PS3 ($300 a year ago with a Sony Card, the card was used only once). While I prefer to stream video from Netflix out of laziness, NOTHING beats Blu ray for quality. If you think upconverted DVD is nearly the same, your TV or your eyes are betraying you---full 1080p on a large panel is very nice indeed. I will only watch SciFi on Blu-ray. This is why I bought a PS3---I figured it was $200 for the BD player (with great DVD upconversion, too) and a $100 plus a 2nd controller for a game machine that also played my old PS1 titles (I skipped the PS2, so could care less).

As a game machine, my family enjoys it quite a bit, especially my 7-year old boy. For just $100 (over the cost of what a BD player is really worth), what a deal for us. It has the best quality graphics I have seen (as long as you are NOT using an XBox port as your comparison...as a lot time Mac user, I can tell you ports are poo), and no ring of death; how refreshingly quality!

While I love the Wii controller concept and game play user experience, good grief, what an underpowered machine. I mean really; it was out of date when released. I find Nintendo's approach to be scrappy and refreshing, but it was not what I was looking for. I had just bought a 1080p set and buying something that could do 480p at best seemed just bizarre to me; and yes, I wanted Blu ray (worth $200 to me, what my first DVD player cost).

Apparently, I AM Sony's target audience: someone who wanted a super multimedia box with some kick ass games but not a gamer. I am interested to see if they add reverse engineer the Wii controller experience for the PS3---but use the Eye doesn't sound right to me. We will see.

Want some negs on the PS3? I do think their Web browser is complete crap; Hulu on the PS3 works only to show it as a feature, but in practice, it sucks unless you use Play On with a PC (and it works very well; but the need to use 2 machines is just dumb). I wish Sony'd just take Webkit and port it to Cell (using multiple Cells), and give up trying to sell me movies on their store. Apple is my fave company but I won't touch AppleTV, much less Sony's movie store. Buy or port Boxee, openly embrace it, and complete the multimedia center transition the PS3 was destined to be.

PS3 is a great box; sure it could be so much better if they went Webkit & Boxee, but still a winner for my family.

Great post. :)

[fef714]

If a PSPhone were to ever come out, people would be divided into two categories:

A. You have a PSPhone and iPod touch

OR

B. You have an iPhone and a PSP


because honestly both of those choices are the same. The consumer would get the all the games of a PSP, and the apps of the iPhone. In either case, both Apple and Sony make a sale.

[fef714]

I don't play a lot of games any longer...recession-era economy means I work crazy hours and with 2 small kids, who has free time? At night, I watch my Tivo HD (w/ Netflix).

That said, I am very pleased with my Sony 46" HD TV (bought last year from Fry's for the same price as a Vizio), and my PS3 ($300 a year ago with a Sony Card, the card was used only once). While I prefer to stream video from Netflix out of laziness, NOTHING beats Blu ray for quality. If you think upconverted DVD is nearly the same, your TV or your eyes are betraying you---full 1080p on a large panel is very nice indeed. I will only watch SciFi on Blu-ray. This is why I bought a PS3---I figured it was $200 for the BD player (with great DVD upconversion, too) and a $100 plus a 2nd controller for a game machine that also played my old PS1 titles (I skipped the PS2, so could care less).

As a game machine, my family enjoys it quite a bit, especially my 7-year old boy. For just $100 (over the cost of what a BD player is really worth), what a deal for us. It has the best quality graphics I have seen (as long as you are NOT using an XBox port as your comparison...as a lot time Mac user, I can tell you ports are poo), and no ring of death; how refreshingly quality!

While I love the Wii controller concept and game play user experience, good grief, what an underpowered machine. I mean really; it was out of date when released. I find Nintendo's approach to be scrappy and refreshing, but it was not what I was looking for. I had just bought a 1080p set and buying something that could do 480p at best seemed just bizarre to me; and yes, I wanted Blu ray (worth $200 to me, what my first DVD player cost).

Apparently, I AM Sony's target audience: someone who wanted a super multimedia box with some kick ass games but not a gamer. I am interested to see if they add reverse engineer the Wii controller experience for the PS3---but use the Eye doesn't sound right to me. We will see.

Want some negs on the PS3? I do think their Web browser is complete crap; Hulu on the PS3 works only to show it as a feature, but in practice, it sucks unless you use Play On with a PC (and it works very well; but the need to use 2 machines is just dumb). I wish Sony'd just take Webkit and port it to Cell (using multiple Cells), and give up trying to sell me movies on their store. Apple is my fave company but I won't touch AppleTV, much less Sony's movie store. Buy or port Boxee, openly embrace it, and complete the multimedia center transition the PS3 was destined to be.

PS3 is a great box; sure it could be so much better if they went Webkit & Boxee, but still a winner for my family.

OMG, this is my EXACT opinion, all of it!!


I find that I have two separate tech lives. I have my Sony stuff and my Apple stuff.

My Apple stuff is my day to day life, you know, my main computer, my and my iPhone.

Sony is more my free time stuff, like my PS3, on my 46' bravia, and my PSP.


Anything Apple does that Sony does better, I ignore (PS3 > Apple TV)
and vic-versa (iMac > Sony VAIO)


They can both co-exist without any trouble. The only thing that I have to do a little differently is I buy 90% of my music on a physical CD. That way I can burn it on my iTunes AND PS3 without any hassle.

Maybe it's just me, but I ALWAYS need my music, wherever I am. :cool:

But with this new DRM free iTunes, I may be converted. ;)

[fef714]

What competition? Sony? Give me a break. Sony is so big they should have had their own OS by now...and they are still shipping overpriced crap with vista for gods sake in 2009...while a bunch of people from south Africa and a fos community can make something as cutting edge as ubuntu...

Surely Sony could too, but they lack the vision....

Their vision went as far as trying to shove some nonsense atrac music format down our throats while apple blew like the wind over their Walkman and diskman empires.

Nokia and a handful of others are putting some ingenuity into their efforts, and then there's the abyss.

Apple is pretty much competing with themselves. Like some high jump athletes who keep breaking world records all by themselves.

Still apple competing with itself seems to be good enough.

NOO, Apple competing by itself is BAD! I see the effects in my own iPod touch!

For example, blue tooth earbuds are suddenly compatible with the iPod touch running OS 3.0. That means the hardware was already there, but Apple had no reason to support it. The 2nd gen iPod touch sold just fine without it, so they decided to milk that, and when sales slowed a bit, they simply release a SOFTWARE update that magically adds new hardware.

With competition, the blue tooth would have been there since the release of the 2nd gen iPod touch, and the iPhone would have had many other features right from the start! (think Video, MMS, etc.)

[4mat]

Anyone remember the Nokia N-Gage? Was it a crappy phone that played games, or a crappy portable game console that could make calls??

I think Apple got it right with the iPhone. First, it is a phone, secondly an iPod, and then lastly it can run apps/games. If sony puts the gaming first, it will badly impact the rest of the device.

[Nemesis]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/27/sony-designing-mobile-phone-psp-hybrid-to-better-compete-against-iphone/)

Reuters reports (http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE55Q0HQ20090627) that Sony Corp is working on a cellphone/game player hybrid to better compete with Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone.

You must Apple to compete against Apple.
Because, to paraphrase Sony's tag line, Apple is like no other. You must be like no other, in this case better than Apple, to compete in the same area Apple does best.

[chekov]

I think the rationale for the iPhone/iPod Touch as a convincing gaming platform is quite nicely covered in this post:
http://www.biztechmbs.blogspot.com/

[windywoo]

The problem with the n-gage, as with all failed console launches, is that it had few compelling titles to make people want to play with one. As a phone it was only a little above average so there was no great desire for it as a phone either.

The PSP has great games, and the incentive to buy it as a games device is there. If it happens to be a phone as well thats a bonus.

[louis12345]

lol, let me ask one thing...

How many times has it been said that Sony is designing a PSPhone?
Answer: About a million.

And they still haven't actually done it! :D Anyway it's too late now! I have a PSP and a 2Gen iPod Touch, and to be honest, I think some of the newer games for the iPod Touch/ iPhone (like Doom Resurrection) have; dare I say it, better graphics? Not to mention all the other features are WAY better on the iPods / iPhones!

EDIT: Lol, ironically Nemesis, "like no other" is Sony's slogan (or one of them) isn't it?

EDIT AGAIN: Oops sorry Nemeis, lol you already said that- but I didn't read it properly sorry!

[NoSmokingBandit]

Anyway it's too late now

I know, right? People should just stop making phones, nobody will ever compete with Apple, so Nokia might as well close their doors right now. Im certain the iPhone will be the last phone ever created, i mean, its too late for anyone else to design a phone now, my crystal ball told me.

[synth3tik]

I think the first thing Sony needs to do is work on brand image.

All Sony hardware I have owned outside of the 80's and early 90's has been garbage. And they always want so much money for their garbage.

[/dev/toaster]

bawahahahahahahahahaha ... good luck!

[cuno84]

I'm sorry Sony, once again you're entering this arena a little too late. Remember how Xbox 360 came out a year or so before the PS3? You'll never catch up microsoft. What makes you think you'll catch up to Apple. Sony is arrogant to recognize their mistakes. Sony first turned Sony Erickson down on the whole phone idea two years ago when the Iphone was announced because they didn't want to "loan" the playstation name to sony erickson. Stupid decision guys.

I with they would put their time and effort into making sure I got my money's worth with my PS3. Sony keeps pissing off customers and game producers. Several companies are threatening to quit making game for the ps3 because sony makes it too expensive and difficult for them to make a decent profit. Sony - you have great quality, but not very good management.

[NoSmokingBandit]

I'm sorry Sony, once again you're entering this arena a little too late. Remember how Xbox 360 came out a year or so before the PS3? You'll never catch up microsoft. What makes you think you'll catch up to Apple. Sony is arrogant to recognize their mistakes. Sony first turned Sony Erickson down on the whole phone idea two years ago when the Iphone was announced because they didn't want to "loan" the playstation name to sony erickson. Stupid decision guys.

I with they would put their time and effort into making sure I got my money's worth with my PS3. Sony keeps pissing off customers and game producers. Several companies are threatening to quit making game for the ps3 because sony makes it too expensive and difficult for them to make a decent profit. Sony - you have great quality, but not very good management.

There is so much wrong with what you just said. I'd normally tear it apart piece by piece, but im headed to bed. If you are lucky i'll rip your post apart tomorrow.

[fef714]

I'm sorry Sony, once again you're entering this arena a little too late. Remember how Xbox 360 came out a year or so before the PS3? You'll never catch up microsoft. What makes you think you'll catch up to Apple. Sony is arrogant to recognize their mistakes. Sony first turned Sony Erickson down on the whole phone idea two years ago when the Iphone was announced because they didn't want to "loan" the playstation name to sony erickson. Stupid decision guys.

I with they would put their time and effort into making sure I got my money's worth with my PS3. Sony keeps pissing off customers and game producers. Several companies are threatening to quit making game for the ps3 because sony makes it too expensive and difficult for them to make a decent profit. Sony - you have great quality, but not very good management.

I hate to be the one to point out that it wasn't that Sony released the ps3 late, but microsoft who rushed the 360 out. It is evident too, think red ring of death...

Oh and if you decide to bash a company, atleast pick a product that was bad. If Sony has done one thing good, it would be the PS3. Honestly it can't be that hard to think of a bad Sony product. 90% of their products (outside the PlayStation family) are huge flops!

As a consumer I am very pleased with the ps3.
PSP, not so much

[kdarling]

Compare what you have today to what there was barely two years ago. Monumental difference. And Apple was the catalyst for ALL of it. Not some, not most, but ALL of it.

All of it? Nonsense.

Before the iPhone, we had 3G smartphones with GPS, Google Maps, voice search apps, games, weather, Slingplayer and multiple browsers that were getting better all the time.

The indsutry was asleep when Apple turned up with the iPhone.

The industry was slow moving, but definitely not asleep. The movement to finger friendly systems was already in process. Apple had to move quicker because of it.

The Synaptics Onyx capacitive multi-touch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQNwQtQvRU)concept phone almost certainly gave Apple lots of ideas.

The Black Box (http://dvice.com/archives/2006/10/black_box_phone_concept_is_one.php)concept phone was another.

And the OpenMoko touch phone (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/smartphones/openmoko-smartphone-did-they-have-a-time-machine-or-what-229243.php)showed off pinch zoom (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/smartphones/fics-linuxbased-smartphone-213016.php)months before Jobs did. Heck, it even had a grid of icons and a dock. So much for unique ideas.

Yup, they made a fantastic phone that really did change everything. A smartphone for the masses.

Now THAT is a far more accurate description. Apple made a smartphone for people who never knew they needed one.

[cuno84]

I hate to be the one to point out that it wasn't that Sony released the ps3 late, but microsoft who rushed the 360 out. It is evident too, think red ring of death...

Oh and if you decide to bash a company, atleast pick a product that was bad. If Sony has done one thing good, it would be the PS3. Honestly it can't be that hard to think of a bad Sony product. 90% of their products (outside the PlayStation family) are huge flops!

As a consumer I am very pleased with the ps3.
PSP, not so much

Fef - I may have not made it very clear, but as a consumer I am very happy with my PS3. I was pointing out all of the stupid mistakes they have done, late start, not accepting exclusive deals in the beginning, and making the game publishers upset in recent news is what I was talking about. My complaint was around wishing they'd deal with those types of issues rather than rushing into a new product where they have no chance of competing.

[LethalWolfe]

I'm sorry Sony, once again you're entering this arena a little too late. Remember how Xbox 360 came out a year or so before the PS3? You'll never catch up microsoft. What makes you think you'll catch up to Apple. Sony is arrogant to recognize their mistakes. Sony first turned Sony Erickson down on the whole phone idea two years ago when the Iphone was announced because they didn't want to "loan" the playstation name to sony erickson. Stupid decision guys.
Too late? Seriously? What makes it took late? Are smart phones targeting consumers on the way out? Is there no more room for growth or expansion in that market place?

After ignoring the home video game market for around 20yrs Sony went from zero to top dog w/the original PlayStation and did the unthinkable by out performing Nintendo (which had practically become synonymous w/home video games). How much of a commercial success was the Newton vs the iPhone or the iPod? Being first isn't always better and being established doesn't make you unbeatable. I'm not saying Sony hasn't made mistakes but pretty much saying that everyone's missed the boat and should concede the entire future of cell phones and mobile gaming to Apple is laughable.


Lethal