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Sony SmartPhone To Work With PS2

Posted by Hemos on from the integration-to-a-new-level dept.

thryllkill writes "Yahoo is reporting a new Sony plan to implement a telephone that can talk to a Play Station 2. Of course it pushing the idea of training characters for games on the run, but wasn't this already tried with the VMU? ."

2 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. The negative side - Bloatware by tempestdata · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The problem with all this WAPI stuff is that by trying to fit more and more functions into small devices like pagers and phones, they are comprimising usability. Unless they come up with voice activation, this problem will continue to increase.


    For instance. Surfing the web, reading/writing your emails, and checking the news is simply annoying to do from a cell phone. Sure, its handy when you dont otherwise have access to computers and such, but the interface just sucks. Reading 5 words per page of a news article is simply not practical.


    Now they will add a whole bunch of new features and that will mean the user will have to traverse a bigger more complicated menu system. What percentage of the users will actually USE those new fancy features? This just looks like feature bloat to me. Sort of how Microsoft does it.


    "How do we get them to drop their old cellphones/software and upgrade to new cellphones/software in order to generate new revenue?" Answer: "Put in a whole new set of features that and hype them up the best you can!"

    --
    - Tempestdata
  2. ...it has *not* been done before... by Sodakar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To all of you complaining about having to carry *another* item, or saying that "it's been done before"... Are you telling me that your VMU or PocketStation could make phone calls, store phone numbers, and have semi-PDA functionality?

    The whole point of this product is that you *won't* be carrying anything extra, as the gaming feature will be enabled on your mobile phone. Additionally, because they claim that you'll most likely use the USB cable to synchronize your data, you won't have to have your phone plugged into your PS2 when playing with the PS2.

    However, it's not without major snags. If it's going to sell, then Sony has to make it a "must-buy" product for everyone. So... while a mobile phone with gaming functions may work for adults and teenagers, what about kids? I'm guessing not too many parents want their 6-year-old to have a mobile phone just so s/he can play games, then turn around and overuse the mobile phone and run up the bill...

    So... then what? Sony would have to make a non-mobile phone version of this portable gaming unit for young kids. Unfortunately, though, once Sony starts selling *just* the gaming unit for $100 or so, then all the people who already have phones won't have incentive to spend $300 on a gaming-phone when $100 will buy them the game, and they can keep their current mobile phone.

    So... make the gaming/training ability not too complicated or meaningful, in efforts to lower the cost? Then people won't carry it around...

    I've seen consumer spending habits for mobile phones in the last 10 years, and while I'm no expert, I think it's safe to say that very few people are willing to dish out $200-$300 on a new phone when they have a perfectly working one...

    We shall see...