PlayStation Phone development continues

by Chris Powell { Sep 14th 2007 at 4:21AM }

Late last month, Sony Ericsson's Peter Ahnegard said the company is definitely looking into the possibility of a PlayStation Phone but that he wouldn't comment further until Christmas. Well, the President of Sony Ericsson Miles Flint couldn't wait that long.

Flint told the Financial Times the "technology behind such a device was still some way from being perfected." He also said, "We need to make sure that it is a credible phone and be sure we are justified in putting that identity on it."

That's actually a pretty good point. It's obvious the PS Phone would be Sony's third tier gaming platform, so how many people would really be interested in toting around yet another handheld gaming device? Wouldn't a VOIP service like the one in the works for Europe not only make more sense but also be cheaper on the wallet?

Tags: ericsson, flint, phone

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mahes @ Sep 14th 2007 11:13AM

Slow newsweek, huh?

kingofwale @ Sep 14th 2007 10:14AM

Iphone has shown that a cross-breed works. what Sony has to do is to make it sexy and actually WORK.

if they can squeeze PSP into Iphone size (by ditching UMD, of course), I will buy it.

lokster @ Sep 14th 2007 10:31AM

lol an iphone killer and ngage killer. Ngage sucked and died. it shouldve waited till better graphics. the thing is it will be SONYs other platform. =/ can the support it and will it really have to play games? phones and games never really mixed, but multimedia and phone would be awesome. it doesnt need to be a gaming phone, could be a multimedia sony phone. eh good luck to them

Brandon @ Sep 14th 2007 10:26AM

Actually the psp compared to phone prices is pretty cheap, most phones cost at minimum 100 bucks with a service plane, or sometimes free with a longer term contract. Any of the higher profile phones often cost well over 150, 199 often being the price point.

I personally trust sony in this respect. The phones that they associate other sony brands with are normally good at what they do. The Sony Cybershot phones have good cameras, and the Sony Walkman phones have good mp3 functionality. So its conforting to hear him say that he wants to make something that is not only a good phone, but deserving of having playstation on it.

upz @ Sep 14th 2007 11:21AM

"Iphone has shown that a cross-breed works."

No they don't. It was the rabid Apple brand loyalty that made it sell. 50% profit margins and never passing savings on to consumers FTW!

Random1448 @ Sep 14th 2007 11:40AM

My guess it was originally just going to be a regular phone with gaming controls, but now I think they're going to try and compete with the iphone maybe

Wolfrider @ Sep 14th 2007 12:19PM

I know I'm in the minority but I don't even own a cell phone. (I don't like enough people to justify being bothered while I'm walking around town) I'll pick up one eventually (for business and work related stuff) but I certainly wouldn't by a PSPhone. Even the iPhone seems like a waste of cash (especially with the iPod Touch).

But meh. Who wants to start a death pool on this thing? I vote DOA.

pbssbp @ Sep 14th 2007 4:10PM

The thing that can make this kick ass over the N-Gauge and iPhone if very simple: They can give it the same internals as a PSP or PSP2 (you know it's coming), so it'll play the same kick-ass library. You'll get to play GTA, Madden, Need for Speed, and LocoRoco. while the iPhone and N-Gauge crowd are stuck with Solitaire and Bejeweled.

But the cool thing is, you'll get to play them everywhere. I often don't have my PSP with me, but I always have my cell phone. More availability = more use = more visibility = more sales = more developer interest. A whole lot of DS owners are going to be mighty jealous when their friends pull one of these out at lunch and, whoops, their DS is in the office/car/back home.

But they can't gimp it. They've already said they need it to be a good phone (thank god), but they haven't said yet that you'll get a PSP on your phone. They need full PSP/PSP2 software compatibility to really get people's attention. If it's just another phone with stunted games, why bother?

Larz @ Sep 14th 2007 2:46PM

"The psp is expensive and unweildy as it is"

What the hell?
1) what are you doing in a PSP fanboy forum?
2) expensive compared to what? For what you get it's very very reasonable, I'd even go as far as to say it's cheap. In fact the production cost was higher than the sell price.
3) unweildy? Uh, it's the most comfortable handheld since the GBA, and it beats the GBA for comfort. I'm not talking about the horribly uncomfortable SP either.

Larz @ Sep 14th 2007 2:50PM

That being said, I don't want this. I prefer my phone to be totally stand-alone. I hate all those features they pack into them and wasting space with a big screen. I'd just like a tiny phone with 1 or 2 lines of text for caller ID. Is that too much to ask? (apparrently it is, for the US at least)