@famousringo --- this is also the best-quality source of a rumor that we've seen concerning the next PSP, endagadget is just about as good as you can get if you aren't something like businessweek, or the wall street journal.  So, we're all taking this with a grain of salt, but if the rumors start coming from other sources, and we get more information.....then it will in my mind move from a plausible rumor to something probably being true.

This is a GREAT MOVE and partnering with Google is genius.

And I am for the move that keeps this "away" from PlayStation branding.

I dunno if the PlayStation brand is powerful enough to sell phones to adults and so on.

Sorta this, but I'll take it a few steps further and say that leaks that happen internally like this always come from low-end employees, (top guys get no benefit and have no reason to give such information out) and said employees almost never see the full scope or final design of the product they're working on precisely because of such leaks.

Look at how vague the details are, and how they still aren't even completely sure on the final design when this is supposedly coming this October. Bullshit. If this was anywhere near complete factories would already be set-up to begin production, and designs would have been finalized months ago. 

This reeks. I believe engadget's source is legitimate, but I don't believe that source has anywhere near the true and full details on whatever this is, nor that the final design will necessarily be remotely similar to what is claimed here. 

That said, if a PSP-ish Android comes out, I'll buy it, especially if Sony puts the PSP library on it and lets me recover my PSN-purchased games.

Taking into account that minis for psp hasnt be a success and that selling 30$-games digitally also didnt work Sony has to offer something else.

The way i see it Sony has two competitors:IPHONE and 3DS..A single device cant possibly compete with both devices at once!!!The reason is simple:IPHONE IPOD TOUCH have cheap games arcade-style,while the 3DS obviously will focus on higher-production games.Now if sony wants to successfully compete with both devices has to come with a 2-way solution:

->PLAYSTATION SERVICE FOR ANDROID:games with psp-like graphics that are cheap and are based on well know ips(call of duty,god of war,etc)...These kind of service will be available not only to playstation phones from sony ericsson but also from other manufacturers(samsung,htc,lg,etc) that meet certain requirements(button-layout,cpu gpu,screen size,etc).Also they dont have to be phones but also netbooks,laptops,tablets,portable media players,televisions,etc based on Android.

->NEXT GENERATION PSP(PSP2):this device wil be the true successor to the psp.it will have its own physical-distributed games based on the high-end hardware found only on PSP2.HOWEVER the device will also be able to play all games from the playstation service for android.

That way Sony will not only bring the playstation experience to mobile phones/other devices and raise playstation brand-awareness but will also create a sucessfull service since the number of  devices that will be able to access it will be large,thus not relying on the psp/psp2  and its sales to make it popular.

To speak with numbers psp managed to sell 60mln in 6 years,while android phones devices last year were at 8mln,this year they will surpass the 30mln mark and growth is only on the horizon.!!

well this :

Sony Ericsson CEO hints at PSP Phone at MWC 2010

17 February 2010

Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg has revealed the company is working much more closely with its parent Sony, and is focusing firmly on the home environment for its future phones.

Nordberg said that future Sony TVs, PCs and stereos, and Sony Ericsson mobiles will all have a common communications interface – DLNA – and that Sony Ericsson’s phones will be much more tightly integrated into Sony’s home entertainment product range.

Nordberg went on to say

In the past, there was no tie-up between us [Sony Ericsson], the PSP platform and Sony, but you can expect to hear much more about that. Sir Howard Stringer’s [chairman of Sony] presence here is no coincidence.”

So, Sony Ericsson PSP phone anyway? It’s been rumoured for years now, makes so much sense, and with Microsoft integrating XBox Live onto its Windows Phone 7 OS, is ultimately inevitable.

http://mobilementalism.com/2010/02/17/sony-ericsson-ceo-hints-at-psp-phone-at-mwc-2010/

Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg says will focus on Android in interview

jul 16, 2010

Sony Ericsson is definitely with the idea to stop using the Windows Mobile or Symbian platforms and it seems that the engagement with Android will be for many years.

Read in full with the interview Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg made by By Gustav Sandstrom, Dow Jones Newswires

“Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson will maintain Google Inc’s (GOOG) Android platform as a key operating system for its smartphones but will likely stop using either the Windows Mobile or Symbian platform in its products, Chief Executive  Bert Nordberg said Friday.”

“The Android platform gives a very strong “ecosystem” for smartphones with good possibilities to download additional applications, and as Android devices get cheaper they will move into the price range of Symbian and Windows Mobile phones, Nordberg told Dow Jones Newswires.” “There is an outlook for us winding down to less than those three,” he added.

“Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson (ERIC) and Sony Corp. (SNE), earlier Friday said it swung to a small net profit for the second quarter, continuing the turnaround started in the first quarter of the year, as it reported solid sales of new smartphones, such as the Xperia X10, based on the Android platform.”

“Sony Ericsson has suffered from heavy losses and falling market share for several quarters. Still, Nordberg said his company should now remain profitable thanks to its ongoing cost-cutting program which is due to be finalized soon, and to its strategic shift towards a higher focus on smartphones.”

“The handset industry has been hit by a short supply of components such as displays and memory chips, in part because of the rapid growth in smartphone volumes, but Sony Ericsson has so far been little affected because of its strong buying power due to the size of its parent companies, Nordberg said.”

http://seinsider.com/?p=2542

Also, the question is, what carrier? Props for Sony and Google's ingenuity, it only took time. 

and sine last Aug. 17th 2009:

With Ericsson side of joint venture taking over day to day operations of Sony Ericsson, Sony’s Chairman, CEO and President Sir Howard Stringer get’s the supervisory Chairman of the Board spot at SE, replacing current Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg.

http://www.unwiredview.com/2009/08/17/ericsson-telecom-insiders-take-over-sony-ericsson-to-save-it-from-collapse/

and then there is this:

The Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) gaming chief, Peter Ahnegard, said that the new gaming focused device wearing the PlayStation badge is coming by Christmas. However, he added that it may not be this Christmas, suggesting two things: 1) He said that by mistake – that suppose to be the big Santa’s surprise; 2) He’s actually not sure when the Swedish-Japanese company will be ready to roll out the PSP phone.

http://www.intomobile.com/2007/06/02...psp-phone.html

You mean like selling VAIOs with windows included ?

well I would think it most likely AT&T to start, because that is where the Iphone is..lol

and the Xperia 10 just also got picked up by AT&T. this would give a leg up once again for AT&T for Exclusive Phones.AT&T's largest oponent has the Droid..so this would give them a android based phone with a pretty good bullet point for contention of best of the Android Phones.

But also I see Sony also creating this same device with no Phone chipset, but with Skype Running would allow people to still use phone like function's. More importantly with Google TV Topset boxes and other Sony TV's with Google TV built in , it makes for more of a unified software ecosystem. which Sony has been working on for several year's now.

example:

MARCH 27, 2006 News Analysis By Kenji Hall

Sony's Renaissance Geek Can software guru Tim Schaaf help the troubled company make the hottest gizmos again -- and make them all work seamlessly together?

1st.

In the late 1990s, Tim Schaaff was a senior executive at Apple Computer (AAPL) with a hefty portfolio. He was in charge of QuickTime, the multimedia software for creating, editing, and playing audio and video on computers, which helped extend the Apple brand beyond the company's own PCs.

2nd:

Sony was cranking out the coolest gizmos around, its software often disappointed. In recent months, Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer has acknowledged that "excellent hardware no longer guarantees success." He has vowed that Sony "must enhance product interoperability."

3rd:

Schaaff's record of backing industry standards at Apple suggests he'll prod Sony toward a similar position. As the head of QuickTime, he made sure Apple took part in the Moving Picture Experts Group and the Internet Streaming Media Alliance, which sought to fix formats for online media technologies. QuickTime's incorporation of those standards helped win wide acceptance for the digital MPEG-4 video format among Hollywood studios, advertisers, and consumers alike.

That dovetails with Stringer's plans to get Sony to embrace industrywide formats and make its gizmos more compatible with other companies'. If Sony adopts the kind of stance that Schaaf did with QuickTime, one day you might be able to download a game, song, or movie from a one-stop Sony online shop onto a machine made by Sony, Panasonic, or Samsung.

4th:

Schaaff is navigating similarly turbulent waters -- but this time by choice. Appointed last December as Sony's (SNE) new senior vice-president for software development, Schaaff has control over design, intellectual property, licensing, and product planning and engineering.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2006/tc20060327_779208.htm

so now you have both Bert and Sir. Howard sitting on the board at Sony Ericsson

and

Tim Schaaf

Interestingly enough, the PlayStation Network development team now reports to Tim Schaaf, an ex-Apple veteran who is now Sony’s first head of software development, and is also part of Hirai’s new division.

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/28/rumour-sony-to-develop-gaming-phone/

I think's it's more than Likely we will be seeing a release or info about the release of the PSP Phone

soon.