Should Sony Team With Google On a PlayStation Phone?

donniebaseball23 writes "The PSP2 is already in the hands of developers, but will Sony take the right direction in the portable sector? Following a recent op-ed on fixing the PSP business, leading game industry analysts came to the consensus that the best avenue for Sony to take is to offer a PlayStation Phone, and a strong partner like Google would do just the trick. 'Sony has the opportunity to redefine the portable games category. I think the best move would be to get out in front of Microsoft's inevitable Xbox LIVE Arcade Mobile and take on the App Store and carrier deck portals. ... They could put out a proper PlayStation Phone (and a PlayStation Pad) but these should compete with smartphones and tablets, not dedicated gaming devices. To do this quickly, Sony could partner with Google and take advantage of Android's considerable momentum,' said Billy Pidgeon of M2 Research."

Comments

No fixing needed!

[JDeane]

Yes add more features surely playing movies music and games was not enough!!! They needed more features so they could outsell the DS!!!

The DS didn't win because it had features..... it didn't win because it had better graphics.... it won because it had more fun games to play and a bigger variety of games to pick from. Pesky consumers and there desire for choices!!!!

Sony just does not have the developer support for 2 systems, I suspect they would be better served by focusing on one or the other.

"Should Sony team w/ Google?" No.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony frankly doesn't have a good track record with hardware in general. The hardware tends to be quirky, and after-sales support poor -- my friend had a Sony DVD player that *specifically* advertised firmware upgradeability on the box, it was very buggy.. no firmware updates ever came out for it, Sony's solution was to just buy the next model. They've done the same thing with other products.

            Sony also LOVES closed systems, the antithesis of Android. They've done stuff like take a generic off-the-shelf DVD or CD drive, and put their own firmware in it, actually introducing bugs compared to the stock firmware while adding no features; some Vaios have fingerprint readers that WOULD be standard and work with generic Linux drivers, except Sony put custom firmware in so it ONLY works with Sony's (Windows-based) software. This also is something they've done again and again.

          Would I buy a Sony phone? Hell no.

Sony, Partner With Google?

[Astronomerguy]

That's a marriage that will never happen. Sony is all about control, and that focus on control precludes third parties and regard for what Sony's users want. See: removal of PS2 compatibility on the PS3, removal of "OtherOS" on the PS3, blocking of third-party controllers on the PS3 etc. ad nauseum. Sony wants absolute control of the eco system, but they don't get it like Apple and even Google/Android does in regards to applications and features. Hell, even Microsoft lets anyone write apps for the Windows platform. Until Sony 1.) merges the PSP into a smartphone platform; 2.) loosens their control or at least modifies it in regards to applications and monetizing their platform, and 3.) opens up to partnering with companies that understand how to work with user's needs and wants, they're dead in the water. I speak as a PS3 owner who uses his PS3 95% for streaming media to the entertainment centre, as an owner of a PSP 3000 who uses it primarily for watching movies and documentaries while traveling as well as running old console games in emulation, and I have a PSP Go that I won at a vendor event (a lucky colleague won a 32Gb iTouch AND an Xbox slim! I got the shitty end of that deal).

No.

[kurokame]

• That's a dumb product idea that doesn't sufficiently account for the present market.
• Sony and Google have conflicting corporate philosophies and deal in conflicting markets.
• With Sony in the game, there'd just be a firmware update later which removed the ability to make calls.

Sounds like the perfect failed product

[dirkdodgers]

Google phone: Failure
Sony PSP: Marketshare loser

But what if we combined them?!

Why, we'd have a Nokia N-Gage gaming phone. Brilliant.

Hey clueless analysts, 2003 called and they want their shitty ideas back.

WTF? "strong partner like Google"

[khchung]

What's this? Would you call Microsoft a strong PC maker? Google just provide the OS, they are a NON-PLAYER in the mobile market, both in terms of name brand recognition and manufacturing/distribution capability. Partnering with HTC or Nokia (while still not have much sense) would make more sense than picking Google.

This is pure Google fanboy wishful thinking.

An Android that plays PSP Games? It need to be so locked down for Sony to accept, that you would not be able to run any non-Sony approved Android apps, that it make no sense to buy one.

With Google's lack of emphasis on user experience, Sony will need to make major changes to the UI that you would not recognize it is an Android device anyway.

This whole idea makes no sense at all.

Re:Yeah, not going to happen.

[GreatDrok]

In terms of user experience, HD DVD is still better than Blu-ray simply because Blu-ray still takes so long to start a disc even on a modern machine. Picture and sound identical, interactivity definitely goes to HD DVD. Yes, I have a modern Blu-ray player which is profile 2.0 and yet it is still inferior to an HD DVD player from four years back. In fact I would give the win to HD DVD on the basis of it being region free.