This sounds like the new age N-Gage. Foh

I should point out that I would much rather Sony spend that money on VR rather than waste it fighting over what remains of the handheld market.

So basically what you are saying is that in order for PSNow to work, the games have to look like arse... And not to mention the lathency issue.

And here is the main issue with your lovely plan. US =/= Global. T-mobile =/= All Carriers. Excellent Reception in some places =/= All places. Etc

In Canada for example, we get 1Gb of data for $60 a month for LTE. So that's not gonna work and same with many other parts of the world. But sure, while we are at it, Sony should also allow the Vita 2 to teleport hookers into our room. Now that would be the ultimate killer!

I don't think Sony shareholders would allow that, as much as I'd like a Vita 2 with P5 on.

Handhelds aren't mobile.

Sounds like it's trying to do too much. A new Sony handheld should just be a handheld, all of the phone stuff would definitely scare me away even though I own and enjoy both the Vita and PSP

The next mobile line of products from Sony absolutly have to be PlayStation. Xperia and Android are a cancer that has cost Sony mutiple billions of dollars, and shrunk their mobile marketshare 80% in the last 5 years. This is my step by step back to mass market, and major profits.

1. First thing that needs to happen is Sony Mobile being merger with Sony Interactive Entertainment. This will bring all of the Sony Mobile employees, tech, and patents under the same roof, as all of Sony's PlayStation employees, tech, and patents.

2. They need to make a massive push to create a mobile freindly version of the PS4 OS, and have everything ready to launch as soon as 7nm PS4 chips are possible (2019 or 2020).

3. They need to get the development comunity ready to make sure all games going forward will be ready to work on PS Mobile devices going forward.

4. They need to make it extreamly easy to port android and ios apps to PS ecosystem. And start allowing devs to bring apps to PS4 over the next few years to prepair for the launch of the PS Mobile devices.

5. Create the hardware. The PS Mobile line all needs to be based on the PS4 tech shrunk down to a mobile form factor. They have to have multiple versions of the device. They need a Slab Phone, a Gaming Phone, and a full on Portable. This allows them to hit the current phone market, the handheld gaming market, and create a new space with the gaming phone market.

6. With everything in place they need to partener hard with all major carriers around the world. In the US they have to have Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. They need to have great deals in place to make the two phone models very competitive.

The above is the only hope Sony ever has of expanding the PlayStation brand, and regaining mobile market share. They will never succeed on Android or with Xperia. They will never be successful on bringing Software to Android or iOS because the hardware and OS's are to weak for a gaming device.

The only way for Sony to be profitable in the mobile space ever again is to have ownership of the hardware, software, and the store front. If Sony and the Shareholders ever want to see the company grow, and compete with Apple, Google, and Microsoft, they have to go in this direction. Otherwise, Sony will eventually fade away. PS4 can only hold on for so long. If they can not deliver a great experience that expands across home and mobile in the next decade, they will no longer have th abiility to compete. Other players with a full range of products like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Samsung will suck up the remaing PlayStation userbase, and Sony will be nothing but a name of a once great company.

The PS Vita has been pulled from all markets but Japan.

Already, retailers have pulled PSV floor space and in 2017, about the only places Vita hardware and games will be seen at retail is in clearance bins and in Japan.

One doesn't exit a market with no future plans for a replacement only to re-enter the market at a later date after the brand and market has laid fallow.

As much as I liked the Vita as a portable console, the idea of portable consoles as standalone platforms is essentially dead. Even Nintendo is exiting the dedicated handheld market with the hybrid Switch. From a business standpoint, it makes far more sense for them to consolidate the Wii U and 3DS markets into a single product line with minimal compromise.

And no, I don't see a market for a $699 Playstation 4 Pro Phone that wouldn't be capable of running PS4 coded games; they would still have to be Nintendo Switch style ports.

Sony is out of that business and the Vita has been reduced to a legacy platform, barring the Japanese market. There is no reason for SCE to ever do another portable platform launch other than as a low cost retro gaming item like a portable SNES, Genesis, etc. So who knows; maybe we'll see a tiny portable Playstation One or Playstation 2 with a bunch of games pre-installed, but that's hardly what Playstation portable fans want.

It's certainly not some pie in the sky high spec concept piece of hardware like the OP proposes.

It wouldnt work in any imaginable scenario.It would crash and burn due to an infinite number of things:cost, internet speed, size, not being a good console, etc etc.

Nintendo must have done a exclusivity deal with Nvidia that excludes sony for some time. I would if were nintendo.
I think the NX will be a sucess and I think they should just let nintendo have this niche. If they get into it will make the niche not work for either.