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Sony challenging iPod with Playstation Portable

updated 05:15 pm EST, Tue December 7, 2004

Sony challenging the iPod


Sony is mounting a from an unlikely direction: video games, according to Forbes report on the USB Media Week Conference taking place in New York this week: "Sony's forthcoming Playstation Portable (PSP)--a handheld gaming platform--will be primarily a gaming device. But, its use of a new Sony-created storage disc format--the Universal Media Disc, which stores nearly two gigabytes--can't help but become an easy method for selling music. The plan, says Andrew House, executive vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, is to get the device in consumers' hands primarily as a gaming device and then use it to market music and video."


by MacNN Staff

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  1. hybrid

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2004

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    12/07, 05:27pm | report spam | Reply |

    Um, yeah... whatever.

    Good luck with that, Sony. Unless people can burn their own Universal Media Discs, i don't see that format having any impact on iPod sales whatsoever.

    Game over. Try again? [yes] [no]

    NEXT!

  1. exca1ibur

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Oct 2000

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    12/07, 05:35pm | report spam | Reply |

    Not direct competition

    The iPod vs. PSP is NOT competition at all. Difference markets with a small common ground. Is the media is desperate for a story AGAIN, or what? Geez, let it rest. The PSP is a portable GAME system, everything else is optional not a priority. PSP is competition to the Nintendo DS, not an iPod.

  1. justinkim

    Mac Enthusiast

    Joined: Sep 2000

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    12/07, 05:36pm | report spam | Reply |

    Memory sticks

    Sony's already confirmed that the PSP will be able to play MPEG-4 H.264 video off memory sticks. While I agree that not being able to burn one's own discs is a problem, the ability to play media off memory sticks goes a way towards mitigating this.

    Personally, I'm pretty jazzed about the possibilities of the PSP. I'm not into console gaming, but it seems to me that the PSP has real potential to turn into an excellent portable computing device.

    Add a micro hard drive, built in wifi, a Mozilla browser and an optional external keyboard and I'd be on it in a second. Add in an ssh client and I'd be in Nirvana.

  1. JohnnyFive

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Feb 2003

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    12/07, 05:38pm | report spam | Reply |

    You mean just like MDs?

    Only smaller and more capacity? Right. And we all know how that story ended.

  1. iKevin

    Grizzled Veteran

    Joined: Nov 2000

    0
    12/07, 05:52pm | report spam | Reply |

    Geez

    Isn't this "(insert random name here) challenging iPod" c*** getting a little worn out. I'm not saying the iPod is the be all end all, but heck....every week someone releases something that the media claims is the "iPod killer" and thusfar, the iPod is still on top.

  1. exca1ibur

    Mac Elite

    Joined: Oct 2000

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    12/07, 05:53pm | report spam | Reply |

    RE: Memory Sticks

    So this would put it as more competition with flash based players though. So again its NOT directly competing with the iPod there.

  1. cmoney

    Mac Enthusiast

    Joined: Sep 2000

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    12/07, 06:39pm | report spam | Reply |

    Re: Memory Sticks

    Except for the much-rumored iPod flash that's supposed to come out after the holidays.

    Of course if they're thinking that the Universal Media Disc will become a new mass-market media format, they should remember how successful they were with Minidisc as a media distribution format. IE, not successful at all.

  1. MacPhoenix

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: May 2000

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    12/07, 08:43pm | report spam | Reply |

    Sony's Track Record

    Le'see, as far as Sony's proprietary media success rate, we have:

    BetaMax
    MiniDiscs
    Memory Sticks
    and now Universal Media Disc

    Damn! How many times do consumers have to say NO!

  1. tuscmat

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Mar 2004

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    12/07, 10:56pm | report spam | Reply |

    Wrong competitor

    Sony should be more worried about MS and the X-Box than Apple and the IPod with this device. They'll end up cramming so much into it that it won't do anything well.

  1. Lancer409

    Professional Poster

    Joined: May 2004

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    12/08, 03:56am | report spam | Reply |

    more on Minidiscs

    When you say Md's are a failed medium like betamax, you'd be wrong. Minidisc didnt catch on in the United States .. but Minidiscs did VERY well in asia. Lots of electronics companies (Sony/Aiwa/Panasonic/Sharp) and many others came out with countless minidisc players. To say the minidisc failed would be wrong. To say it failed in the United States is something else.

    I dont think the psp will do well against an ipod. the ipod fits easily into a pocket. imagine using the psp as a ipod like device, in it's neoprene or whatever case. trying to jam it into your pocket. i dunno... it's not portable enough or spacious (capacity) enough to compete.

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