bdbdbd said: @Dryden: My mobile phone can do all that too, except that it doesn't have a touch screen and has less processing power than iPhone. So, i'm pretty sure there's a reason to own something else, and the reason is called battery life.

I'm confused which device you're referencing in re: battery life? The battery life of the iPhone is amazing! I've played FieldRunners or SimCity for over an hour on it, plus listened to music, surfed the Web, or made a days worth of phone calls. The battery life on my iPhone under moderate load is comparable to, if not better than, that on my DS. When neither device can go ALL DAY, it think the point is really moot. The DS tops out at ~4.5 - 5 hours of straight use (I know, I've played enough Pokemon to hit that wall before). The iPhone/iPod Touch isn't that good for solid uninterrupted gaming, but then, it doesn't need to be, because that's not all it is used for.

Not problem with the PSP however how Sony thought they were gonna get away with UMD movies is beyond me.

Sony Marketing Department- "Hey I've got an idea! Let's get consumers to buy movies on UMD"

Sony Executive- "But due to it's more limited storage capacity won't it be inferior to the DVD version?"

Sony Marketing Department- "Ummm..."

Sony Executive- "Isn't it a bit rich to get consumers to part with cash on two different formats...especially on an inferior format that can't be used on a home DVD player"

Sony Marketing Department- "Er..."

Sony Executive- "Right I'm sold. Let's do this shit. OOOORAH!!!"

@Dryden: Referring to iPhone. I do know that it has pretty impressive battery life, but in reality, it needs to be more. I'm not saying it's not at a level where "you'll manage" and the battery life propably fits for light users.

I agree with the article ^_^

it's seen from a hardcore view, but it's true, very true

sadly some people can't take reality..

*coughkyroscough*

@Dryden: I see you edited your post while i was writing my previous post.

Let's say you can play 4 hours on your DS (i guess it's the "fat" model) and you can play the same with iPhone. Then you can talk four hours with your mobile, let's say it's the same you can talk with iPhone. You can browse the web for X hours, listen to music/radio for a number of hours, watch TV for certain amount of time etc. Basically what you have with separate devices, is huge number of working hours for all you do with them, when a multifunction device has very limited hours. Of course, you don't do everything at the same time. You may play games and talk on the phone simultanously or listen to music and play games or watch TV while you talk, browse the web while listening to music, but charging the phone constantly is a pain in the ass. I see people with mobile phones and iPods all the time and why is that? Because listening to music wears the battery and requires additional charging.

From converstations with people it seems that the primary selling features of the PS3 are its media capabilities, playing SNES games on an emulator and the ability to easily steal games ... None of which translates to high software sales.

Low software sales has two effects, it limits the number of games that are developed for you platform (and the PSP has one of the smallest line-ups of announced titles with somewhat solid release dates), and retailers make their money on game and accessory sales and don't want to sell platforms that don't sell software.

Whether you're ready to accept it or not, the PSP's sales are going to be way down in 2009 and down even further in 2010 (potentially gettin pulled from store shelves).

Because the "studio released iphone games" look like this:

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2008/12/photo_09.jpg

and the PSP games look like this?

http://pspmedia.ign.com/psp/image/article/789/789182/god-of-war-chains-of-olympus-20070516111227008_640w.jpg

or because you have to use a touch screen control panel where you try to do movements by moving your fingers around on a virtual d-pad, which makes the screen, which is smaller as it is even smaller because your fingers are in the way?
The Analog stick of the PSP may be somehow uncomfortable but this is no competition for people who want a really good game.

Not saying that the iPhone isn't a great device even for gaming but seriously.

@HappySqurriel

Megastores sell movies and a lot of devices suitable to pirate them too.
They sell hairdriers, that have attach rate only on items not sold at electronics and appliance store.
They sell bagless vacuum cleaners, but also those with paper bags, after the model isn't new anymore, you don't find them at megastores, but in smaller specialized stores or at repairer's shops.
They sell bulky TV sets that occupy large parts of the stores although the attach rate for recording and playing devices is <1.
They sell cellphones, ovens, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, etc, if they sell devices with 0 attach rate or little more, often bulkier and sometimes cheaper too, why should they stop selling PSP's that have an higher attach rate anyway?

they don't know what they are talking about.

bdbdbd said: @Dryden: I see you edited your post while i was writing my previous post. Let's say you can play 4 hours on your DS (i guess it's the "fat" model) and you can play the same with iPhone. Then you can talk four hours with your mobile, let's say it's the same you can talk with iPhone. You can browse the web for X hours, listen to music/radio for a number of hours, watch TV for certain amount of time etc. Basically what you have with separate devices, is huge number of working hours for all you do with them, when a multifunction device has very limited hours. Of course, you don't do everything at the same time. You may play games and talk on the phone simultanously or listen to music and play games or watch TV while you talk, browse the web while listening to music, but charging the phone constantly is a pain in the ass. I see people with mobile phones and iPods all the time and why is that? Because listening to music wears the battery and requires additional charging.

The problem with this is that portable game systems need to be portable, and the fact of the matter is that they cease being portable when we choose not to carry them, since we can only fit so many devices in our pockets. The phone is almost always the top priority. An NPD study last month indicated ~80% of portable game system owners used their systems at home. That indicates that people don't actually carry their DS or PSP systems around because, while portable, they're still too big and clunky for everyday use, unless WE KNOW we're going somewhere where we're about to be bored, and need four hours worth of gaming in our hands.

The charge question is a non-issue to me. The iPhone completely charges off any iPod cradle/cable from all previous generations via USB in about 30 mintues.