Sony Considering Music Downloads for PSP to Compete with iPhone?

[jayman99]

i personally use my psp for more media than the iphone. for gaming, the psp wins hands down again the ipod touch and iphone. you cannot even compare the two. just the you cant compare the ds to the psp. the new psp will be announced next month in june at E3. it will be shipping by the end of the year, in time for the holiday season. the new psp will directly compete with the ipod touch and iphone. i see the psp integrating wireless data for making phone calls over wi-max or something of that type. it won't have a cellular plan, it will have a data plan. phone calls can be made over the data plan.

the new psp will also have downloadable games (just like the playstation store now, but many more games including psone games, psp games, and psp2 games). movie + tv rentals/purchases will also be available directly on the new psp. in addition, music downloads will be available too from the playstation store as well. the new psp is going to excel in many ways becoming a solid gaming system, data communicator, media center. no doubt. they have had enough time to work on it now. i can see it having a built in flash drive as well as expansion slot. additionally, touch screen is a high possibility. the psp does not need a touch screen, but it could be seen as useful for media center navigation and menus as well as bare-bone games using new touch screen technology. most games however will still use the analog stick and buttons. the new psp2 will also have 2 analog sticks, hopefully! and the addition of a L2 and R2 triggers would be much appreciated for all current playstation owners!

those are my thoughts, in a few weeks we will see. stay tuned and check out E3 coverage. supposedly sony will have the largest booths at E3.

 

[VoR]

Rumor has it all rootkit downloads will be free.

An automatically updating rootkit downloading software app, and without even having to buy any music first, excellent news.

Previous experience from sony's software teams (especially related to playback, storage and transfer of mp3/atrac/whatever-they've-dreamt-up-this-time - which really is saying a lot compared to some of their other ventures into software...) has put companies like EA and (the old?) symantec to shame.

edit: ps. I think itunes is rubbish too (price/'attempted' lock-in/software), and that 'everyone' should be competing and selling (very cheap, and single tiered master quality) music online.

 

[JBazz]

I love my PSP. Sony offering music downloads for their next generation is great. People seem to get confused on this board. PSP downloading music isnt to compete with Apple but to enhance their device. Read the same kind of faulty logic on the Kindle thread where people were trying to compare them to a netbook. PSP = gaming device, iPod = music device, Kindle = reading device. While they may offer overlapping functions, it does not change their PRIMARY purpose.

 

[sldsnk]

Open platform

Sony should transform the PSP into an open gaming platform. There is a lot of homebrew programmers that can show the true capabilities of the PSP unlike Sony. They should release an SDK and get people hooked on making their own games. I doubt that Sony can pull off a sleek SDK similar to what Apple offers for the iPhone.

I love my PSP btw!

 

[Rassybat]

The competition is iPod Touch VS PSP, not iPhone.

WHY IPOD TOUCH IS WAY BETTER:
- way smaller, thinner, ligther
- steel + unscratchable glass VS plastic+scracthable_plastic
- app store and cheap games perfect for casual gamers
- multitouch is way better in controlling 99% of the activities except some genre of gaming where psp is better
- psp is useless as a browser or IM (ridicolous text input)
- app store app store app store
- itunes store, itunes program
- you can put it in the pocket of your jeans
- bluetooth ad2p with 3.0 firwmare ---> bluetooth stereo headphones
- nike+
- app store app store app store
- you can do thousands of things thank to apps
- etcetera

So I don't see ANY "COMPETION". And this news ("mp3 downloads on psp") doesn't change the situation very much. Or not at all.

PSP is better only for people interested in SOME kind of gaming....(and has more graphic brute power)
For CASUAL gamers I advice iPod Touch...

I dunno. My Silver PSP is more functional as a web browser/IM/gaming device...which is where Touch is simply ineffective. You can't play multiplayer GTA sessions on a Touch, or anything that can be considered serious gaming. So yes, the PSP does some things a LOT better than the Touch.

So what's wrong with the PSP? It's another product from Sony that has incredible potential but is held back by a serious lack of games and UMDs that aren't really "universal." As for this music deal....too little, too late.

 

[MikeTheC]

Alright, the thing about Sony is they've got their hands in too many different industries. I know this isn't the "PRSI" area, I'm simply going to mention one single Biblical quote just for ease of discussion.

There is a passage in the Bible that says "A house divided cannot stand." Sony is that divided house, and true to form they keep tripping over themselves.

One group at Sony wants to put out a cool electronic gadget that does X, Y and Z. But another group at Sony that is a part of the music or video or gaming or whatever industry doesn't want that device to fully do X or Y or Z because they think (maybe correctly, maybe not) that it'll conflict with their own operations and revenue stream. The resultant product or service then winds up being watered down or effectively neutered, and so Sony goes on to produce yet another device or technology or service that nobody wants.

Sony makes LCD panels, various kinds of optical media, optical drives -- you name it -- and oftentimes you'll find, for instance, a Sony product (say, a computer) but the optical drive or on-board camera or whatever is actually someone else's product because, for instance, Sony won't give itself the same price that another company will. So you've got various divisions of Sony competing against one another. Add to this the fact (I have mentioned this several times before here on MR) that Sony likes to live in the past and revel in past glories, and you've got a mix that's really ripe for disaster.

I'm not saying that Sony doesn't make a single product, service or technology that works or is any good -- Bluray is probably a good example of decent standard / physical media product -- but you have to understand they keep tripping over themselves. Also, Sony is into control in a big way. If you think Apple's bad about "my way or the highway" they've got nothing on Sony. Why do you think, for instance, that Sony isn't a part of iTunes, even though Steve personally approached then-CEO Nobuyuki Idei at a golf tournament about a deal? But nooooooooo, Sony couldn't do that.

So, Sony launched their own music service which became Connect, and was a complete and utter failure.

Here's a quote from a recent endgaget.com article:

Sony CEO Howard Stringer on music: "If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple"

Back in February, Stringer reassigned. Dr. Chubachi to vice-chairman and will be involved with product safety and quality. Here are a couple informative quotes from a February Bloomberg.com article:

"The Japanese can't take decisive actions toward their comrades during hardship," said Yuuki Sakurai, general manager of financial and investment planning at Tokyo-based Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Co., which manages $54 billion in assets. "As a non-Japanese without such loyalties, Stringer is better positioned to conduct the large-scale restructuring that Sony has to do."

It should be noted before moving on to the second quote that when Sir Stringer became CEO, he had to get rid of a ton of retired executives who were all used to having Sony-paid-for-for-life private chauffeurs and limousines and lifetime high-paid jobs with Sony as product consultants (they largely didn't do anything anyhow and were just high-paid retirees who used their influence to promote what they liked and kill what they didn't).

Here's the second illuminatory quote:

"Chubachi personifies Sony’s enthusiasm for hardware, while Stringer represents its software focus," Sakurai said. "The company has now concluded it can’t focus on both."

I guess maybe Stringer has finally concluded he needs to get off his *ss and run the company a bit more like Steve Jobs. Nevertheless, I think they're screwed up so bad whatever he does isn't going to make much difference.

We'll just have to see.

 

[polaris20]

I dunno. My Silver PSP is more functional as a web browser/IM/gaming device...which is where Touch is simply ineffective. You can't play multiplayer GTA sessions on a Touch, or anything that can be considered serious gaming. So yes, the PSP does some things a LOT better than the Touch.

So what's wrong with the PSP? It's another product from Sony that has incredible potential but is held back by a serious lack of games and UMDs that aren't really "universal." As for this music deal....too little, too late.

The bolded is very, very subjective. I found the PSP to be cumbersome to deal with the browser, and it's just too big to carry as an MP3 player. And I wouldn't really want to be doing "serious" gaming on a handheld device anyway when it's easier to play on my laptop.

 

[aygie]

Just wanted to chime and say a new PSP is almost guaranteed to be shown at E3, the hype and comments from other games companies has been mad the last few months.

 

[oban14]

The competition is iPod Touch VS PSP, not iPhone.

WHY IPOD TOUCH IS WAY BETTER:
- way smaller, thinner, ligther
- steel + unscratchable glass VS plastic+scracthable_plastic
- app store and cheap games perfect for casual gamers
- multitouch is way better in controlling 99% of the activities except some genre of gaming where psp is better
- psp is useless as a browser or IM (ridicolous text input)
- app store app store app store
- itunes store, itunes program
- you can put it in the pocket of your jeans
- bluetooth ad2p with 3.0 firwmare ---> bluetooth stereo headphones
- nike+
- app store app store app store
- you can do thousands of things thank to apps
- etcetera

So I don't see ANY "COMPETION". And this news ("mp3 downloads on psp") doesn't change the situation very much. Or not at all.

PSP is better only for people interested in SOME kind of gaming....(and has more graphic brute power)
For CASUAL gamers I advice iPod Touch...

I don't know if I've ever seen so much fanboy ******** crammed into one post. You've outdone yourself.

As far as a game machine, the PSP destroys the iPhone/iPod touch and it isn't close. I own both, play games on both, and while I appreciate the ability to download on my commute the graphics, gameplay (without buttons) and everything else leave plenty to be desired on the iphone.

Unless you're trolling when you state something like "multitouch is way better in controlling 99% of the activities except some genre of gaming where psp is better" you should cancel your internet connection and never post on the internet again.

 

[carbz413]

I found the PSP to be cumbersome to deal with the browser, and it's just too big to carry as an MP3 player. And I wouldn't really want to be doing "serious" gaming on a handheld device anyway when it's easier to play on my laptop.

You seem to be forgetting, that the new PSP could be connected to a television or a computer. So, even though you are still using a handheld device, it would simply be like a controller with the image on the screen.

As well, the PSP is geared more to gamming rather than anything else. They may have video and music support, the PSP is still geared more towards playing a video game. No one would buy a PSP just because they could play music on it, since there are other (and usually much cheaper) options. The iphone (and ipod touch) are both more geared towards music and videos. Again, it would seem rather worthless to buy an iphone or an ipod touch just to play the apps.

Each device is more geared towards its respective industry, and should be treated as such. If a person was not buying the device based upon its respective industry, then it would seem like a waste of money. Sony and Apple could not compete because of that.

 

[JoshBoy]

yup yup

I don't know if I've ever seen so much fanboy ******** crammed into one post. You've outdone yourself.

As far as a game machine, the PSP destroys the iPhone/iPod touch and it isn't close. I own both, play games on both, and while I appreciate the ability to download on my commute the graphics, gameplay (without buttons) and everything else leave plenty to be desired on the iphone.

Unless you're trolling when you state something like "multitouch is way better in controlling 99% of the activities except some genre of gaming where psp is better" you should cancel your internet connection and never post on the internet again.

I agree dude 100%. People get caught up in the hype of apple (don't get me wrong i am a pretty bad fanboy at times) however I think Sony are doing similar things and the comp is good. Bring it on and I will replace my PSP when the new one comes out

 

[puffnstuff]

there are rumors that the psp will blend with the sony mylo that would be sweet!

 

[MikeTheC]

I just wish you folks could have seen Sony's ill-fated eVilla product. (Oh, and for laughs, say the name out loud. Would you buy a product with a name like that?) Talk about a failure, that was Be, Inc.'s last gasp before they curled up their tootsies and died.

Speaking of, has anyone heard from Jean-Louis Gasse at all?

EDIT: Here's a photo of the Sony eVilla...

 

[nobunaga209]

People still buy PSPs?

+1, my white special edition Darth Vadar PSP has been collecting dust on my computer desk for some time now. With UMD's barely getting any pub anymore and most game developers focusing on the mobile market the PSP is pretty much dead IMO.
Truth be told Sony doesn't even advertise it as hard core as they used to most of last year...I know everyone remembers the new DVD release commercials that would boast DVD, Blu-Ray, and PSP support...not so much nowadays.

 

[bluePeter]

How is Sony going to do that when Apple will not allow any 3rd party players to connect into iTunes.

Well, per Forbes, there may be changes on the way. Pre seems to be able to sync with iTunes:
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/05/28/scooplet-the-palm-pre-syncs-with-itunes/