Mobile phones with gaming features aren’t anything new. Previous efforts of the market leader, Nokia, towards such fronts haven’t been very successful, and at one point even led to the embarrasment of the company. The reason for this may be that phone companies are good at making phones, but not so much at integrating the games. This is why Sony is in a very good position to be the best in this area, turning the highly-regarded Sony PlayStation Portable into a full-on cellphone with the help of Sony Ericsson.
We’ve been hearing rumors about the Sony PSP phone since last year, but so far have not been able to confirm solidly, thanks in part to Sony’s “yes, we’re making it; no, we’re not” strategy. However the latest word on the street says Sony is already working on converting the current PSP model into the much-awaited PSP phone. This is well in line with the claims that it will be seeing a release in Christmas 2009. But there’s on catch: Sony Ericsson has nothing to do with it.
As a mobile phone company who’s name starts with Sony, you’d think that Sony Ericsson might have a role in the making of the Sony PSP phone. But then you’d be wrong, because an insider with very big ears says Sony will “never give its PlayStation branding” to Sony Ericsson.
This is a bit odd, since Sony already gave the Walkman branding to Sony Ericsson for use in its music-centric cellphones. Perhaps Sony is not satisfied with the royalties, if there’s such an arrangement, and the overall performance of the Sony Ericsson walkman effort?
This would explain why the recently launched Sony Ericsson F305 didn’t carry the PlayStation branding, though, even if it is SE’s first effort at a gaming device (and a motion-sensing one at that!).
Whatever Sony’s up to, and whether it will team up with SE or not for this thing, let’s all just hope the product turns out alright. The PSP, as it is, is great. And I personally don’t want to see the precious little thing turn into a disaster.
Via Marketing Week
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