The Sony PSP: Not An iPod Killer
Yesterday I requested approval for my Free Sony PSP, the first of the final steps towards actually receiving my PSP. People have been hailing the PSP as the next great gadget, despite Sony seeming to do its best to ruin the product through its use of proprietary UMD discs and Sony memory sticks. So here's my two cents:
I call current tech gadget era the "last mile problem of gadgets" namely, the quest for the all-in-one gadget that is both cell-phone, web-browser, mp3 player, pda, portable gaming platform, and movie player. I'm in love with my iPod, but with some oh, 8 million iPod's sold in the last Christmas season alone, I can't help but feel we're entering the post-iPod era. Heck, Dr. Davis from Covenant called last night asking which iPod he should get. Once things like that start happening, you can trust that a product has reach something of a market saturation crescendo. Everything after this is trying to figure out if you can open a Starbucks in the bathroom of a Starbucks, or if Wal-Marts can be profitable if there are 2 within 5 miles of each other.
What bothers me though about the new Sony PSP is that it is neither a "new walkman" nor the "last mile gadget", although it seems to me it could have come far closer than it has, largely because of Sony's stupid, stupid narcissistic love of their own proprietary formats.
"Disks" or any sortof hard-material media is the way of the past. Its not just that Sony was dumb for forcing its UMD format on PSP users because it limited users from burning mini-dvd disks or to use a format that is going to be notoriously expensive, it was dumb because videos, music, and even games are now being bought, purchased, and consumed in a purely digital and on-demand fashion; and that's not going to change and its only going to get bigger.
And they only compounded the problem by forcing its users to use their proprietary memory sticks. Right now the biggest memory sticks you can get are $300+ 1gb sticks. This is horribly, horribly small and ridiculously expensive. So not only did they develop a gorgeous piece of gadgetry that forces you to buy expensive proprietary media if you want to watch videos, but even if you want to download some onto your memory stick, if you want to get anything like a full movie on there, you're going to have to spend more money than the PSP cost itself to do so! Heck, 1gb sandisk flash memory all lists for around $90!
But here's where they really screwed up: if Sony truly wanted to get a leg-up on Apple and beat the next-gen iPod, they should have put a bigger hard-drive into the PSP, even if it would have cost more. Heck, consumers have already shown an incredible willingness to drop $300+ on just a music player, why not think they'd be willing to drop $300 on a true gaming system/video player/and music player? Heck, even if they only managed to get one of the toshiba 6 gb internal flash drives (like apple uses in the new mini's) in there, that'd be a vast improvement over the current situation. Imagine what it could be if the dropped in a 10 gb hard-drive, or even more.
So despite all the praise Sony is receiving over the PSP, I don't think its in any way the last mile gadget, or the iPod killer, or the new Walkman. We're probably still a couple years away from the cell-phone/iPod/gamingsystem/movie player/pda with wi-fi & a big fat hard-drive that lets you download all the movies and music you want via iTunes or whatever your file-attainment software of choice happens to be.
All that to say, I'm still looking forward to my free PSP.
Josiah Q. Roe | By Josiah Roe | 10:41 AM
Comments
I think we're closer to the uber-gadget than you think. If I could find a PCMCIA-enabled pocket-PC, I'd probably ditch my mp3 player and cell phone, because Verizon offers wireless broadband all over New York, as long as you use a PCMCIA card that supports their protocol. A 10gb device I can hold in my hand that plays movies, music, and lets me surf would be the ultimate in connectivity. And if I had $600-800 to throw at the problem, I probably would.
Posted by: ryan at April 7, 2005 12:46 PM
I'd go with Josiah. One you add phone or video capabilities to a gadget, it seems like the battery life drastically drops. (and for me, the uber gadget would be rechargeable).
Heck, get me an iPod photo, and mix it with a mac version of palm os (as a windows ce alternative), and I would be one happy camper. 30g of music listening, photo viewing, web surfing, email checking, note taking, long battery life-ing, goodness.
Posted by: Kyle at April 7, 2005 3:17 PM
The ubergadget for me would have to include an inobtrusive power cord that I could use to sneakily snatch power from restaurants, outdoor plugs in parks, or any other place where I plan to sit for a while.
Posted by: Hugo at April 7, 2005 4:36 PM
Also the inventor of the PSP.. well the head of Playstation at Sony was demoted this past month with the hiring of the new CEO, that dutch guy. Apparently Mr.. Japanese Playstation guy has publicly and privately cursed SOny's affinity towards proprietary and criticised the hands that feed him by saying they'd be doing better than apple if they'd simply do away with it. He was passed up for the CEO job even though his division is the running the best and in the past ten year's only done better, whereas most other sony departments have gone down hill (with the exception of the tv division---its always strong). So not only was he passed up for the promotion he was actually demoted and removed from the board.
Also i've heard Bill Gates's response to questions why Microsoft isn't really getting in a lot of the games SOny and other companies are. Why they aren't making ipods or game devices. He believes that sooner rather than later you will buy a device that will be able to wirelessly play games/music/movies and never have to go to bestbuy ever again. And i think that's what he's working towards at least.
Posted by: holton at April 7, 2005 9:23 PM
