actually you're right, it might even end up being more than that if it's a completely bespoke PSP2 card/cartridge - at least initially.

According to the all powerful wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Media_Disc

1.8GB on dual layered

Which the PSP can use, I assume.

But I think a 4 GB SD card would be the best successor then, although it might be a bit more expensive than an UMD. Still, www.amazon.com are selling 4 GB cards for 10$ max (as low as 5$), and buying in bulk should cut down on that cost. Greater mass production could cut it down further, so I don't think the price increase do to UMD price < SD price is that significant.

Yeah Fury is right, I knew it was 1. something but didn't want to over estimate it.

And I highly doubt Sony would use SD cards as they like to use their formats which would limit it to Memory stick Pro and Pro duo.

Don't mind that, I always say SD cards when I mean everything in that line of business

EDIT: And of course, Sony's own format would be the obvious choice, and since Sony has its own SD cards, it would make it an even greater contender for the format to be used in the PSP2.

Am I the only one who would welcome a UMD-less psp? For those with UMD discs, chances are there'll be software to transfer those games onto a memory stick or the internal flash memory using your existing umd-enabled PSP or a seperate UMD reader device.

I hope SONY chooses to drop UMD for PSP2 simply for the extra battery life and fact that a SD card reader is smaller (giving SONY some room to try and add a 2nd analog stick)

Hopefully SONY will use 2gb/4gb cards which would give developers plenty of storage capacity without costing too much.

If Sony wanted to maintain PSP compatibility with the PSP2, all it would need to do is make an accessory that could copy UMD games to a memory stick or whatever format they decide. Not ideal, but better than ditching the current 50 million psp owners and starting again. A flash memory based medium would fix the slow loading speed problems, and flash memory will always get cheaper, whereas disk-based media will platue in price (you can only simplify materials and parts so far). Plus it makes future upgrading of game size possible.

considering that over 50% of the current PSP users probably dabble in some sort of piracy.. dropping the UMD might not only been a sensible approach, its might just be the necessary one.

Thats a good point. Although going the SD route would probably mean some serious DRM.  Getting rid of UMD drive means more battery life and quieter as well.  Of course this is all speculation and its not likely Sony is going to give any specs away this far from release.