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

[Jon the Heretic]

I like my PS3

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 I mean really; it was out of date when released.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!

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.

 

[0098386]

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]

PSPhone

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.

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]

Reuters reports 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]

How many times!?

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! 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]

Too late Sony

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 concept phone almost certainly gave Apple lots of ideas.

The Black Box concept phone was another.

And the OpenMoko touch phone showed off pinch zoom 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