Some of your sources are a little misleading and outdated because this statement is completely false,"Sony has just announced a complete overhaul of the user interface for the PlayStation 4. The XrossMediaBar is totally gone from this iteration..."

Overhaul yes. A vast improvement yes. But the XMB is still there. The sourse was from a article dating back to reveal when the OS was partly revealed.

So how long are people willing to wait for popular apps like Youtube, Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Netflix, eBay, Pinterest, Shazam, good navigation apps and many many others?

Which navigation software can Sony offer? These services are very expensive for platform owners, get much hate if they don't work 100% and smartphone customers expect this feature out-of-the-box. The Vita used Google Maps until now, but Sony already lost Google's support.

Google will allow itself plenty of time before releasing YouTube, Google Maps and Google Music to a new directly competing phone OS.

Microsoft will allow itself plenty of time before releasing Skype or MS Office to a new directly competing phone OS.

Lol right, because all these companies making android smart phones are doing it because they don't rake money in from sales. Makes total sense.

And please enlighten me how making a new operating system on a SMART PHONE won't compete with android or ios? That's literally inevitable. There's no fucking way that someone looking toward their next cell phone won't compare the feature set of a Playstation phone to two other operating systems on the same idea of a mobile device. Sony doesn't have the financial ability to develop a fully featured, gorgeous UI without going through serious teething problems the first few years. The majority of the people aren't going to prefer a vita type OS over the other two well established OS' that already have massive Dev support. The market won't allow another major OS to enter, two seems to be it. Look at windows phone market share. Look at symbiam. Look at what's left of blackberry. You're saying Sony could distinguish itself by offering games but cell phones already do games the best they can. I'm not gonna lug around a gigantic phone that has 5 hour battery life with joysticks on it. Most PlayStation gamers agree with that as evidenced by vita sales. 

At this point PS4s appeal extends beyond gaming, and a major driving factor behind the uptick in stock value is PSVue. People have predicted PSVue over every other service is going to reach the mass market, not gaming itself. These are all things that people don't so on their phones. Music streaming, small games lacking depth, social media... That's what people do with their phones. I'd almost hope they release this phone just so we can watch it crash and burn but that'd be extremely petty and I don't wish that failure upon them. This might've been a risk to take had they the extra capital to experiment with but they don't and this is far too risky. If such an idea was feasible then the vita never would've existed in lieu of the phone youre asking for. 

Again, battery life would suck. No way it couldn't.

The phone would be bulky, thick and have joysticks.

The OS would be premature right out the gate.

There's a huge lack of apps.

All just to play vita games.

They can incorporate PSN into the Z4 without ditching android while marketing with that sex appeal factor. The things you suggest equate to corporate suicide.

KBG29 said:

 Youtube, Skype, Facebook, Netflix, and many others are already available on the PSVitaOS. Most other things run just as good through the web browser if not better. They are brining a lot of new apps to the PSVita all the time as well. We just got Snagfilms a couple of weeks ago and MLB.tv is on its way. When PlayStation Vue and PlayStation Music hit they will have the best TV and music services available on the platform.

Another thing to consider is this is not aimed directly at Apple and Google, it is a gamers first platform, so a lot of these apps are not as important on day one. The most important thing is making sure they have games, PS Now and Remote Play anywhere via  , and the whole library available on PS Vita right now. This is where they build the userbase, within two years they would have 50M users, and apps would start pouring in.

They do not have to step righ out in front of the train. They can market directly to the gamers who are their strongest market. These are the people they can pick up, because they are not as worried about all the little Apps on the other devices. These are the people that want Remote Play and PS Now anywhere anytime over 4G, on a device that can actully play the games. The Z3 can never compete with the Vita in this regard because you have to have buttons and sticks to control PlayStation games. Carrying a Dual Shock 4 and a mount is not the answer.  

Me: I'm a gamer, I'd still want my phone to do everything that everyone elses can do.  No compromise here, I expect my smart phone to do smart phone things first and foremost.  Gamers are regular people, and yes most of us would still be worried about all the 'little apps' on these devices.

Again with the battery propaganda. They can easily fit a 4000mHa battery into a full size Vita chassis, and that would give you 10 - 15 hours of gaming. The average users would have a very hard time running it dry on a normal work day. Even on a weekend it would have plenty for 6 hour gaming session and a night at the ball gam or whatever.

Me: Battery propoganda? The first gen Vita had an average battery life of 4 hours.  The newer Vita has an average battery life of 6 hours.  If they can fit a bigger battery in the vita chassis why haven't they? How do you know how much gaming time 4000mHa equates to? Not only that but the networking features of a phone work differently than the vita.  Vita doesn't worry about the same things, I promise the battery is utilized differently.  And isn't it counter intuitive to be playing full scale games on a work day? That's exactly why phone games work and vita games wouldn't. Again, on a phone I can pop in to (for instance) Trivia crack, play for 5 minutes on a break and pop back out. Is that really how vita games are? Because I seriously doubt it. Not only that but again the phone would have to be massive, bulky and probably wouldn't even fit in my pocket.  Id literally be making trips to and from my locker just to get a few minutes of play time in whereas now, my phone stays with me very easily and all it requires is reaching down.

The size of a Vita and a phone is much greater than a PS Phone by itself. It is way more convenient than a DS4 + mount + phone, or even a phone and a physical cradle. They alredy have an OS with three years of development, plus a hugly experienced group at Somy Mobile  Comunications. Apps are the one weak spot, but they would come quick with the huge sales momentum the device would have. Again 50M in the first two years should be no problem. This would be the #1 phone/mobile in Japan in that time.

It is way more than playing Vita games. This is a viable platform for PlayStation Now and Remote Play. It unifies the home and mobile experience. Everything under the same ecosystem, the ultmate easy to use platform which PlayStation was founded upon.

Me: Good, I'd really hope this new phone wouldn't be the same size or bigger than a phone taped to the back of a vita.  So that's reassuring.  Still not convenient at all though. Still unsightly to put it to my ear while there's joysticks poking out above my eye and below my mouth. There's more than just Apps that are the weak spot too lol. There's the fact that the hardware refresh cycle would have to be much faster, the architecture would be a bitch and a half to work out, the fact that my vita phone is more powerful than your vita phone is really weird to think about... oh yeah. There's tons of drawbacks.  There's too many sacrifices to be made just to be able to play vita games. And PSVue on your phone? Lol right. How many people have unlimited data on their phone. That would cost a fortune in overage charges. The best thing Sony can do for their mobile division is marketing, sex appeal, making the Z4 more aesthetically pleasing and incorporating the PSN services onto an Android platform.  If someone wants to take it a step further, let them buy an add on cradle to give it joystick support.  Other than that, leaving Android is far from the best idea they could do.