I take it a bit farther and say that the PSP is actually what put Sony in the position it is in today. It started with launch blunders, (March in the US is not the right time of year to launch any platform), high pricepoint for a handheld ( I was working in an electronics dept of a major retailer at the time, and parents scoffed at the price, for something their kids cound and most likely would lose). Right from the start half of their market was unreachable, then the game selection did little to set it right (lots of remakes, ports of PS2 titles and generally weak games in general). Then later came the hackers who would destroy the already weak software sales. On top of all the problems the system was dealing with the DS was marketing itself as a machine for everyone.
In closing i think the PSP has been an albatros around Sony's neck since it's release, the real solution here is to kill the system and start from scratch. If they want to compete go with a more relaible flash based media, considering memory sticks are atleast 4GB now and im sure by the time a succesor came out they could be at 8GB, much more than a UMD could hold and more reliable. The widescreen design is great and without the disk based parts you would get much more battery life and still maintain the beautiful high resolution screen. The second analog stick is almost a no brainer, and a good connectivity to PSN is also a good key to success. maybe even an onboard HD for gamesaves, downloads, internet browsing and media functions. That way it can also compete with the Ipod crowd it was also trying to capture with the original.
Just a few thoughts on why the original could have much better and a smart succesor could help Sony through a difficult time if PS3 doesn't pan out as a huge success.
Remember your history or you are doomed to repeat it.
Viacom Boycott
