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Sony Designing Mobile Phone/PSP Hybrid to Better Compete Against iPhone?
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I'd be pro iPhone if mine would freaking leave China already 
It does say "Prepared for Shipment" so maybe thats some good news
It does say "Prepared for Shipment" so maybe thats some good news
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.
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.
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.
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.
once again....
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 ;-)
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 ;-)
and once again...
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 ;-)
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 ;-)
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.
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.
Sony are, in my opinion, a company that should be taken seriously on a statement like this. Anyone remember SEGA? You know, the megadrive?
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
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
Why So Much Hate???
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
FANBOYS SAY THE ZUNE IS RUBBISH !
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
FANBOYS SAY THE ZUNE IS RUBBISH !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
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.
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.
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
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!!!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.
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.
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.
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]
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.
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!
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
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.
Here we go...Sony...Too late...but we'll see.... maybe they'll surprise us, but I doubt it.
Go
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.
Attachments
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.
Hope not
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.
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.