PS Vita 2, Or PSP 2, Must Happen..... Sony Vs Nintendo?!

[KBG29]

Platina said:
Well, Sony is already in the mobile Market with their Smart Phones..

They have phones with the Sony name on them, and a massive amount of mobile patents, but in reality Google is in the Smartphone market using Sony's name. Moving to a PlayStation Phone, based on the PS4 hardware, and powered by PSN, Sony would really be a mobile player. This would actaully start to make them money and help them expand their business.

greenmedic88 said:
The interesting thing often repeated is the circular logic that a new Playstation Portable can't be successful without being the equivalent of a high end smartphone, because that is that only thing that would justify the cost of a $600-700 Playstation handheld game platform.

Nobody appears to be aiming for the low hanging fruit of a sub $300 handheld (which is no longer top end spec), which approaches the realistic ceiling of what the general consumer would be willing to pay for a portable game device. I don't buy the notion that Playstation would create the market for $600-700 gamer phones, which would remain a small niche product.

But naturally, the logic follows that if you tack a phone service onto a PSP, then it can and will sell for at least twice the price with the corresponding high end specs available to the smartphone market. The monthly service/data fees are about the only thing that would allow for high end specs (and corresponding price) unless the goalposts are moved so that Sony can either sell such devices at cost or at a loss.

That will not happen. It's a bit hard to follow that logic.

Yes, a high end smartphone with a monthly service/data plan fee sells for that price. Check. The assumption is that there would be enough general consumers who would switch to a Sony branded (sorry: Playstation branded as the argument follows that the PS brand is strong, not the Sony brand) smartphone, that will presumably be sold with Verizon, Sprint, AT&T phone and data service options as Sony doesn't own their own network and phone service.

Playstation (Sony) couldn't even sell Playstation fans on the 3G service, which had less to do with data speeds, and almost everything to do with Playstation fans not wanting to pay for 3G data plans in exchange for the limited benefits 3G data plans provided for games. I say this as first day PS Vita buyer who insisted on buying the 3G model, only to stop paying for the data plan because it added nothing in functionality for me as someone who was already using a smartphone. And no, I wouldn't have ditched my iPhone if my PS Vita had a phone number I could use for work.

I don't doubt there's a market for a $700 PSP. What those $700 PSP Phone pundits aren't being entirely honest about is the small size of such a market that would make such a consumer device a poor business decision for Sony. Or Playstation.

I wouldn't buy one, and I have bought everything Playstation since the original Playstation (PS, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, PSV). I certainly wouldn't replace my phone with one.

The thing is, Sony will be able to make a $400 PS Phone when the time is right. They will be able sell at a break even because they will own the hardware, the OS, and the ecosystem, something that they will never have with Xperia and Android. Right now phones are highly over priced because most manufacturers rely on the actual sale of the device, because once it is in the consumers hand google starts racking in the cash. Apple on the other hand takes advantage of the outrageous prices android parteners like Sony, LG, and Samsung have to sell at for minir profits or even losses, and sell their units at hundreds in profit prr unit, then they continue to rake in cash once the device is in peoples hands, because they on the OS, the hardware, and the  ecosystem.

Also in this move Sony could not simply only sell handheld form factor devices. Slab style PlayStation phones, and a pure wifi only handheld product would have to be available as well. However, I believe that this time around the benifits of 4G would absolutly dominate the non connected device, because 4G would offer full access to online gaming, and all other servuces found on home consoles and smartphones.

Obviously this would not knock android and ios out of the market, but it would definitely be highly successful. A PlayStation phone would be a 200 million seller in the first 5 years. It would sell over 40 million in Japan alone. This is something that Sony absolutly has to do if they want long term success with the PlayStation brand, and it they ever want to get back into the mobile market.