AfterDawn: News

Sony finally creating a PlayStation phone

According to a new WSJ report, Sony is finally ready to create a PlayStation-branded smartphone, one that will help it compete against the iPhone, and Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 line.

Additionally, the company will be creating "a portable device that blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable, or PSP," one that it hopes will compete against the iPad and net/smartbooks.



The products have a target launch in 2010, but prices are nowhere near finalized.

Equally as surprising is the news that this will be a Sony-only venture, leaving out Ericsson, its long-time smartphone partner.

PSP and PSP Go sales have been extremely disappointing since the launch of the iPod Touch and the Nintendo DSiDS continues to rack up impressive sales, all at the expense of PSP market share.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 4 Mar 2010 12:55

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• 21 comments

• Morreale

  Yay finally can't wait to see it :)

  4.3.2010 13:35 #1

• emugamer

  I don't have a smart phone yet. Just hasn't been cost effective, and I'm not one to jump into trends. This will be interesting as I finally decide on how to consolidate my many devices into a single one.

  4.3.2010 14:57 #2

• biglo30

  Wow looks like Sony is ready to step up big time this year. Can't wait to see what they have in store. With the ps3 finally reach close to the breakeven they can focus on these are projects.

  4.3.2010 17:07 #3

• Hyasuma

  "The products have a target launch in 2010, but prices are nowhere near finalized."
  
  If you ask me, it be too expensive

  4.3.2010 18:30 #4

• Mysttic

  And let it flop like the N-Gage. Seriously, this is a joke. This is how they intend to make up market share lost. After ripping off the public with the PSPGo, they resort to thinking they are ready to tackle the phone idea. Look where Ericson got them. Bad idea, real bad. Sony should literally fire their executives on this idea, and the PSP and go back to doing what they did best in the gaming industry. Consoles.

  4.3.2010 18:52 #5

• Josipher

  wow..its been a long time since sony had my sincere intrest..ive been using my PSP as an mp3 player to listen to songs in the shower for the past few months for lack of better use for it

  4.3.2010 19:09 #6

• ZippyDSM

  if I can get unlimited data+local phone with PC tethering for 50$ a month I will sign my soul away.

  4.3.2010 20:27 #7

• bam431

  If you throw in a second analog stick thingy i'll buy it but who am i kidding thats not gonna happen.

  4.3.2010 21:16 #8

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by bam431: If you throw in a second analog stick thingy i'll buy it but who am i kidding thats not gonna happen.HA, it wont have sticks and I doubt it will have buttons, I bet it has a pull out screen for typeing and control and the main screen will be touch driven as well for the phone.
  
  But its useless to me if they don't make it tether and don't make the data package cheap. They can do voice over data and sell a speed based setup, 0.2Mbs(but in voice mode) 30$ a month, 1.0Mbs 70$...oh well...wishfull thinking anyway.....

  4.3.2010 21:31 #9

• blueboy09

  Originally posted by ZippyDSM: if I can get unlimited data+local phone with PC tethering for 50$ a month I will sign my soul away. Hey man, dream on. This is Sony we are talking about here! If they couldn't sell the PSP Go because on their minds it was going to "blow away the competition by going UMD-less", what makes you think that the phone based on that mentality? Don't get me wrong, Sony has great products, but based on their mind set, I really don't see a successful phone platform like what Nokia or even what Motorola has, but yeah, I'll agree that your plan would work on any telco company out there, now if only they would listen to the words we speak. - BLUEBOY

  4.3.2010 21:32 #10

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: if I can get unlimited data+local phone with PC tethering for 50$ a month I will sign my soul away. Hey man, dream on. This is Sony we are talking about here! If they couldn't sell the PSP Go because on their minds it was going to "blow away the competition by going UMD-less", what makes you think that the phone based on that mentality? Don't get me wrong, Sony has great products, but based on their mind set, I really don't see a successful phone platform like what Nokia or even what Motorola has, but yeah, I'll agree that your plan would work on any telco company out there, now if only they would listen to the words we speak. - BLUEBOYI know I know they just want to maintain their top heavy monopolies and spend their profits on their top 10% employs and figure out how to raise prices and and dumb the rest of their employs into welfare roles...
  
  And I am talking about Comcast,At&T,Verizon,Sony, MS even nintendo,ect,ect they are practically clueless....
  
  I mean ISP's should focus on speeds and base plans around it but no they want fou unlimited plans that cause them trouble because their profits are spent on CEOs 10th vacation home.... as for Cell phones.... 70$ a month for data and 450 minutes a month suck, here's a thought 6$ a GB and tie in voice bandwidth with that with a cap of 120$ a month, 60$ for 60GB GB would be great, and if you lower the data speed to 70-100ish KBPS you can price the plan at 3$ a GB.
  
  Voice could go at a rate of 1MB a minute, they make money regardless and we pay for what we use instead of all this damn usury monopoly.....
  
  
  /rant ><

  4.3.2010 21:53 #11

• DVDBack23

  Originally posted by ZippyDSM: if I can get unlimited data+local phone with PC tethering for 50$ a month I will sign my soul away.Zippy, don't know where you live but you can Sprint, Palm Pre, $70 a month unlimited texts, data, voice calls...Sprint may not be the best carrier, but it's def a good deal.

  4.3.2010 22:46 #12

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: if I can get unlimited data+local phone with PC tethering for 50$ a month I will sign my soul away.Zippy, don't know where you live but you can Sprint, Palm Pre, $70 a month unlimited texts, data, voice calls...Sprint may not be the best carrier, but it's def a good deal.DUnlap,TN zip 37327, not many cell carriers out here, in fact we got DSL a year or 2 ago and tis 60$ for 1.5MBs.
  
  I hate the way cell is setup because I will never use half of the minuim time based voice plans. Verizon is 40 a month plus 30-40 for data for a droid. If I could get real unlimited tethering I could drop my DSL but frankly its silly of me to think that........
  
  I only really need access to a cell data plan 5 or 7 times a year for a week or so but meh I can't really afford it...I could get a pre pay cell phone and dump 10-20$ into it a month.....
  
  Mmmmmm version has a 9$ a day thing somewhere...that might just be my best bet just save out 10-50 a month to pay for it when I need it.
  
  Scratch that.... 15$/75MB a day,30$/250MB a week,50$/500MB a month....... W....T......F........... if that was 750MB,2.5GB and 5GB even at twice the price I'd be all over it!!

  4.3.2010 23:00 #13

• KillerBug

  This is a great idea...but I'm afraid it is just too late; the PSP-go should have been a phone...maybe then it would have sold.
  
  Still, the idea of being able to play big-name games on a phone is a very appealing prospect. Who knows, they might even be nice enough to put a "OtherOS" feature on there, so you could use Android too.
  
  I was actualy going to order a Droid tonight...so much for that!

  5.3.2010 00:40 #14

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by KillerBug: This is a great idea...but I'm afraid it is just too late; the PSP-go should have been a phone...maybe then it would have sold.
  
  Still, the idea of being able to play big-name games on a phone is a very appealing prospect. Who knows, they might even be nice enough to put a "OtherOS" feature on there, so you could use Android too.
  
  I was actualy going to order a Droid tonight...so much for that!Its not horrible but its 30-40 more(total 70-80 a month) than I am willing to shell out for semi unlimited tethering. If hey garrented unlimited data I would drop my DSL and go with that

  5.3.2010 00:55 #15

• KillerBug

  Mobile internet isn't going to replace my cable modem any time soon, even full-speed 4G is far slower than my cable modem, and current 4G is only marginaly faster than 3G.
  
  It would be nice to carry the internet with me, even if it was a bit slower...but the device is the problem. One of the main things I would want is silverlight support, and I don't think that is even on Windows 7 mobile, let alone android devices (and knowing sony, the PSPhone probably won't even support flash). I guess I could forgive these missing features if it allowed me to play grand turismo on my phone.

  5.3.2010 06:20 #16

• xyqo

  @zippy
  Maybe you should move here to jamaica lol
  You can get 1.5 mb/s with tethering (semi unlimited speed drops to edge if you exceed 3GB) for less than $40 with unlimited family talk and txt.
  We even have unlimited 15mb/s cable for less than $35

  5.3.2010 11:32 #17

• ooZEROoo

  Mobile internet has a long way to come. Even wifi is still yet to be perfected.
  
  Back to topic: PSPhone? watch it be the psp go with a touch screen and able to make phone calls. This would be tempting if it gets jailbroken like the iphone. Just think, a pspgo phone that is able to do all of things I can do on my custom firmware psp, but that is just wishful thinking so I think I will just stick with my psp and blackberry.

  5.3.2010 14:17 #18

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by xyqo: @zippy
  Maybe you should move here to jamaica lol
  You can get 1.5 mb/s with tethering (semi unlimited speed drops to edge if you exceed 3GB) for less than $40 with unlimited family talk and txt.
  We even have unlimited 15mb/s cable for less than $35Well if I moved to Chattanooga I could get that if I could afford to live there :P

  5.3.2010 15:39 #19

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by xyqo: @zippy
  Maybe you should move here to jamaica lol
  You can get 1.5 mb/s with tethering (semi unlimited speed drops to edge if you exceed 3GB) for less than $40 with unlimited family talk and txt.
  We even have unlimited 15mb/s cable for less than $35Those are nice prices, but I can still think of several better reasons to move to a tropical island where weed is legal!

  6.3.2010 01:27 #20

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by xyqo: @zippy
  Maybe you should move here to jamaica lol
  You can get 1.5 mb/s with tethering (semi unlimited speed drops to edge if you exceed 3GB) for less than $40 with unlimited family talk and txt.
  We even have unlimited 15mb/s cable for less than $35Those are nice prices, but I can still think of several better reasons to move to a tropical island where weed is legal!And I bet the US dollar goes alot further there as well!

  6.3.2010 01:54 #21