Since it is a PlaySTATION, that means you need to be still, like near an outlet. Not for mobile gamers.

Is Sony serious? Who is going to use this as a media device? Who is going to replace their iPod with a PSP? Most new phones and all PDAs these days already play movies too. Who wants to replace their existing devices with something bigger that you have to buy extra discs for?

I think they've hit the nail on the head here - I was looking at getting an i-pod, then an i-pod photo (then thought about the creative Zen)but went for the PSP instead. It'll do the music (by the sound of it with better battery life!) and show photos (on a much better screen), PLUS it plays movies and games and is actually a similar price (even when imported from Japan). The final stroke is that you can play ANY music you like on it - unlike the pods which lock you in to proprietry music files with limited usability.

Oh, and 'Frankly', you obviously are a major i-pod fan (either that or just a Sony hater), so daft comments like 'you have to be stationary to use it, not good for mobile gamers' don't really count for much, even as humour!

I think they've hit the nail on the head here - I was looking at getting an i-pod, then an i-pod photo (then thought about the creative Zen)but went for the PSP instead. It'll do the music (by the sound of it with better battery life!) and show photos (on a much better screen), PLUS it plays movies and games and is actually a similar price (even when imported from Japan). The final stroke is that you can play ANY music you like on it - unlike the pods which lock you in to proprietry music files with limited usability.

Oh, and 'Frankly', you obviously are a major i-pod fan (either that or just a Sony hater), so daft comments like 'you have to be stationary to use it, not good for mobile gamers' don't really count for much, even as humour!

Yeah, god, and remember when they diluted the brand and let you play audio CDs on the PSX? God, that totally ruined the Playstation as a gaming platform.

And christ, remember when they diluted the brand and let you play DVDs on the PS2? God, what were they thinking! No REAL gamer is ever going to want to watch DVDs on the same device as they play games on!

Funny, Sony planned to limit music encoding to its own ATRAC format before realising that the iPod can play AIFF, MP3 and MP4 (+ iTunes AAC). Sony is now trying to compete with iTunes but I'm wondering how hard they will break their teeth on it.

The form factor doesn't help the PSP as a music device. The iPod is designed to fit in the pocket: the user just slides the iPod out of her pocket, uses the wheel and slides it back. The PSP is designed to be used horizontally: the user has to extract the device from his pocket and rotate it by 90° before accessing the main interface.

There's a promotional picture in the January edition of Edge magazine, where a bunch of people have a PSP in one hand and look at the screen. When I first saw this picture, I was just thinking how discomforting is the use of that device.

The PSP is fine as a gaming device but it will not do that well for playing music, neither as a portable multimedia device. It's too big, even bigger than n-gage, and at this size, I want to operate it with my fingers, not with digital cursors.

I admit I can't wait to get my hand on the DS :-).

Of course the PSP will be a great success, but it will be driven by the brand name, not by the features (how many gamers are still using the PS2 has a DVD player when the machine had such a noisy fan or a CD player...) and I doubt it will cannibalize the sales of more specialized devices.

Good point, Dan. I think the main difference here is Sony's history in the portable music device market. The maker of the Walkman clearly missed the boat on the mp3 player, and they've been stinging for years. That's no secret. It's becoming clear that Sony wants to take on the Apple giant. They're introduing a music service for the PSP and touting its ability to play many file formats.

So the PSP is meant to be a direct competitor for the iPod. But it's also meant to be a direct competitor for the Nintendo DS. When you try to take on two markets in one device, with the sole purpose of gaining market share in both markets, you're looking at the definition of diluting a brand. That can be a smart move sometimes. We'll see if it's a smart move on Sony's part, soon enough.

I thought Frankly was funny. Esecially when you look at the name PlaySTATION. It really does sound like you have to be stationary. Maybe Sony could have named their mobile line like Nintendo does. Then we'd have the PlayBoy.

:-)

I'm not an iPod fan. I still don't understand why people would use this as an MP3 player. The PSP is huge compared to an iPod and holds 1/100th of the music.

You don't have to ba a "major iPod fan" to realize this thing does not stand a snowball's chance in hell in the portable music arena.

You obviously don't know much about the iPod either #3. You can play any MP3 file on the iPod without having to use a DRM solution.

Another thing to compete against when taking on the iPod is the form factor. #5 eluded to it. The iPod is a 1-handed device. You can switch tracks, playlists, look up all music by a particular artist or genre or anything else with either your right or left hand. You don't need both. This is great if you are, say, standing on a train, holding onto a handrail or dragging luggage in the check-in line at the airport.

With the PSP, you have to use both hands, left for moving the selection, right for executing commands. Bad idea for a portable media player.

This is even without going to the extremely limited media functionality of the PSP.

In short, you want a media player, look elsewhere. I hear the gimini is good at playing audio and video. Small enough to fit in the pocket and comes with a whopping 20 gigs of storage. How much would 20 gigs of storage set you back if you bought it in Memory Sticks?

http://www.engadget.com/entry/6213210442242855/

Sony has been "flooding the channel" on the gaming-media side with game info. They're have no trouble selling to the PS2 set on the games alone, but by selling it as a "media player" to the casual set, they can position it as a "must have" gadget.

GearLive is now offering the value pack PSP deal on their free site in case your looking for one on the cheap. (link in handle)

Just a quick comment on all this STATION meaning stationary...have you ever heard of a STATIONwagon; I'm not positive but I am pretty sure those are mobile and I am pretty sure Space stations move...at about 200,000 mile per hour. So it is not the first use of station on a non-stationary thing.

Oh, and I along with about 999,999 Americans will be buying a PSP this March, so I am pretty sure Sony is doing a good job with how they are pushing the PSP regardless of what all you alleged marketing gurus say. I find especially laughable the comment that it is not useful because you have to use both hands when taking it out of your pocket, because no other device makes you do that, and the PSP wont come with a one handed remote in the US package right...no wrong.

The PlayStation brand is arguably being repositioned as a point of convergence for its vertically integrated (hardware and software) empire. The confirmed firmware update should shed further light on Sony's intentions. I'll most likely use PSP in addition to my iPod, but not as a substitute.

I'm a big fan of "If you don't know what you're talking about, don't speak."

So,

"The final stroke is that you can play ANY music you like on it - unlike the pods which lock you in to proprietry music files with limited usability."

Shut the hell up, tard. =)

Why would I use a music player that's larger than the iPod, but can't store more than 1GB or so of music?

1GB MemorySticks are running >$100 right now. Would it not be wiser to buy a cheap 1GB MP3 player (ahem, iPod Shuffle) than to buy a giant memory card for the PSP?

The PSP is huge. Bigger than the iPod, and MUCH bigger than the iPod Shuffle.

The battery life is horrible compared to ANY MP3 player. The iPod gets about 8 hours. iPod Shuffles get >12 hours. The PSP lasts 2-4 with the screen on. If you want to use the PSP for gaming at all while you're away from AC, using it to play music as well will cause major problems. Carry an iPod Shuffle instead of a second battery. :)

The PSP has a poor interface for playing music. Can you operate it from your pocket? Can you adjust all the controls without looking? Does it easily fit in a pocket with headphones plugged in? This is a device that is meant to be held with two hands and looked at, not stuffed in a pocket and listened to.

Sony has no decent online store for music, nor do they have a large installed base of MP3 players (excluding MiniDisc) that can handle ATRAC.

Playing music is nice additional functionality, but buying it as a music player is stupid.

Chris K nailed it one.

The PSP is purely dependent on being a convergence device, not standing on it's own. The iPod is a success because it does one thing, and does it stunningly well. The PSP is not meant to, and will not beat the iPod at it's own game. What it MAY do is attract people who wanted a multiple device, and are willing to sacrifice some functionality to enjoy multiple functions on one device. In other words, someone who wants an MP3 player because they listen to it when they're walking, working out and studying for hours on end....they're not going to go to the PSP first. With a 1GB stick going for $150-$350, the iPods are a better value. The 40Gb iPod Photo is $499.

The people who will get a PSP aren't going to be people who suddenly decided not to get an iPod...they'll be people who probably weren't going to get an iPod in the first place. Ozimandius above mentions he was going to get an iPod...but he believes that the PSP will meet his needs, instead. He also clearly indicates he doesn't have it, yet. But if you can get by with such a small amount of space for your music, you weren't planning on getting an iPod, I think. I have a flash MP3 player with 768Mb of memory...that's enough that I can carry about 10-12 albums of material. I routinely swap things on and off of it. A friend has the Dell Jukebox, which is a TRUE iPod competitor, in that it has 30Gb storage. You load the music on AND NEVER TAKE IT OFF. That's why playlist management (an important iPod feature often ignored in these discussions) is so important. Does the PSP offer good playlist creation and management? Even for my flash-based player, this is a critical feature. The idea that you the PSP is the equivalent of the iPod in this capacity seems just silly to me.

And the idea that the PSP and Sony will offer a better support of formats strikes me as really, really funny. Does the PSP support WMAs? Ogg Vorbis? Maybe through hacks...but then, so do other players. Iriver is legendary for it's ability to be hacked.

The PSP is not threat to the ipod for one simple reason.

ipod = portable music player
playstation = game machine

you can try to reposition brands if you like but both of these brands are already very strong in peoples minds.

apple sold 4.5 million ipods over christmas. In the minds of many an ipod is considered a status symbol, and it was the "must have gadget" over christmas.

The PSP is going to be known as a game machine, to compete with gameboy. it would require a groundbreaking PR compaign to change public perception.

You can debate file formats and copyrights all you like. If the pros and cons of digital rights managment turns out to be the big selling point for the PSP then you've already lost. only a small number of people understand the difference between acc and mp3 or any other format. if that's your core audience your sales will be less than a million.

if you want to sell 10 or 20 million units then file formats have to be transparent because most people don't care. 97% of the songs in my ipod are my cd collection. I added somethings from itunes and a few mp3's I already had and I'm set. I have a car adapter plus an couple of cables and I can plug my ipod into anything I want and play my music. I've never found apples DRM to be overly restrictive. Once you've got your entire music collection in a tiny little box you can take anywhere what else do you need?

To answer Chris K:

"The battery life is horrible compared to ANY MP3 player. The iPod gets about 8 hours. iPod Shuffles get >12 hours. The PSP lasts 2-4 with the screen on. If you want to use the PSP for gaming at all while you're away from AC, using it to play music as well will cause major problems. Carry an iPod Shuffle instead of a second battery. :)"

Just playing back music gets you 10 hours plus. See:
http://psp.ign.com/articles/574/574557p6.html

"Can you operate it from your pocket?"

It comes with a remote, so I would assume so.

I just wanted to point out the hilarity that the PSP is playing something starring Ali G.

Booyakasha!

word on the ali g. all i wanted to say is, i'm excited for the hackability of this guy! i hope the battery life isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. :)

To be honest.The movie and photo playback are my main reasons for getting a PSP. Ill be getting a 1gb memory stick pr duo and loading 3 or 4 movies and some photos on there, and have a better device than a portable DVD Player or PMP(there are none out with better creens or decent interface). Games are nce touch too. I have the feeling that Sony is going after people like me

Wow, the hate in this thread is pretty heavy. Sure an iPod is better at playing music than a PSP but a PSP is much better at playing games than an iPod is.

If I am on the go and want to take one device, it's the PSP. Movies, music and games. Nothing wrong with that. It's amazing that bonus features like the ability to play music, movies and photos can somehow be looked at as a bad thing. I would imagine though that once the DS add on is released, everyone in the Nintendo camp will somehow find a way for these features to be useful additions. Such brand loyalty is sad.

PSP is a great system. It will sell millions of units. It will be fun to come back to some of these comments and read what all the haters had to say.

I think mobile phones have many of these "convergence" features already. I've been reading about the Treo which plays movies at the same resolution as the PSP, plays MP3s and can even stream them from Shoutcast stations. It seems like a much better convergence device, although the games don't look as good.

I'd rather have a media device that plays music and some moview seperate from my game machine.

You don't need to be a hater to feel shafted by a company that is knowingly selling a defective product at an inflated price.

You have to be a fanboy to still like the PSP at this point.

Haters will say anything to try and justify their weak arguments. For example:

"You have to be a fanboy to still like the PSP at this point."

Let's see. "at this point" Which is basically prior to the US launch. For you personally this would be a time prior to actually playing the system. So basically you let articles dictate whether you like something. I have actually played the PSP and therefore can have a legitimate opinion about it. You on the other hand depend on what someone else says about it to form your opinion. Loser.

Is he a loser for listening to the personal experiences of many who have actually played the device, and have experienced rampant problems with it. MANY PEOPLE have experienced subpar battery life. MANY PEOPLE have experienced ejecting disks (guess what there is even a widely watched video on the net documenting this fact). MANY PEOPLE have experienced horrendous load times throughout multiple parts of their gameplay. MANY PEOPLE have experienced poor functioning of the button closest to the screen, INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT OF SONY. Seen the interview, "loser"! Where the guy says that they pretty much had no choice. Either make the screen smaller or make the device bigger, like those would really be the only options to making the button consistently responsive. What an idiot! And then the guy pretty much says that their masterpiece is so beautiful that it doesn't really matter, that he has no intention of fixing the obvious defect.

I hope the psp bombs in America like it deserves to with such unbelievable asses selling it to us.

Agreed. The only GOOD press at this point is by people who either:

A) Gain something by the PSP succeeding. Game magazines and sites fall into this category because it grants them readership and advertising $.

B) Fans who are blind to the truth. #25 listed a good number of KNOWN TECHNICAL PROBLEMS WITH THE PSP. Anyone who still thinks the system is the greatest is blinding themselves to the truth and is, therefore by definition, a fanboy (fanboi).

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fanboy&defid=18085

1. fanboy
Person with no sense of kickass and sucking, or right and wrong, because to him, his favorite thing is always the best.
Stfu fanboy.

Truthfully, #23 loves his PS2 and hopes that Sony gets their head out of their ass before they royally fuck themselves over with their attitude.

You can't keep shitting on your customers and expect them to remain your customers for long.

If you want to buy the PSP, knowing that the president of Sony itself said that the device does not work well, then go ahead and bend over.

Some of us are done being Sony's tools and aren't going to PAY to be raped by shitty products any longer.

tool.

Good grief you guys are such followers. I have the PSP and the load times are fine. No discs popped out of it at any time and the battery is great. 5 hours + is more than enough time to play a portable game.

You people are funny. You place so much emphasis on some idiot twisting the crap out of a PSP to get a disc to pop out. If I throw my dvd player against the wall and the dvd comes flying out, I guess that means everyone should get rid of those devices too.

As much as you want to hate the PSP, if you truly enjoy videogames, you owe it to yourself to play it before passing judgement. Of course this requires going into it with an open mind. Based on your comments, that is highly unlikely.

Play it yourself before speaking: You hit the nail on the head with your last paragraph. The thing is, I don't see anything wrong with people being fans of this or that. There's nothing wrong with favoring one thing over the other.

But when people start saying things like "If you buy PSP then you are getting ripped off" or "The DS is just for kids and is nothing more than a paperweight" then I think they are taking it too far.

The PSP won't bomb. Nor will the DS. And true video game fans will hope that both platforms do extremely well because that will benefit all gamers in the end, even those who only have one system.

Not to mention the fact that, at the end of the day, it's just video games! We aren't debating the death penalty or something!

the guy didn't have to twist the thing to death, if you watch the video, he was just playing it normally and the disk flew out. He was not doing anything out of the ordinary that would justify that behavior. Lucky for you, you didn't get one of the machines with the button problem, but the several thousand others who did probably don't appreciate the attitude of the president of Sony.

While I don't think it's as bad a people would have you beleive, quality control issues are always there.

The first PS1s were notorious for overheating. My first Gamecube had to go back as well. My friend had an Xbox that just stopped reading discs. It happens.

Nintendo made the decision to remove the digital port on the gamecube. That was not a good thing to do to customers either.

All of these companies basically just want our money. Although I do have to say Nintendo was good about replacing the Gamecube.

The first year of any product though is the worst year. They know that the demand is super high and they don't have to fix things. I really haven't had a problem with the O button or discs flying out. Dead pixels have been problematic for me on both systems though.

u have to admit PlayStation sound a lot more convergement than xBox360

see, u can play games, music, movies, all at this one station.... wutever, i'll never expect something with a PS to do anything but games

@ it happens, i havent heard of any dead pixels on systems of anybody that i know in RL

but the PSP got poor design, worst offender being the "analog" stick, i think morst people wont use the square, and no its not the O button

My PSP does not have any dead pixels, but I do know of two other PSP owners that have dead pixels (as well as more that have no dead pixels). One of them has a single dead pixel near the center of his screen and the other has 1 dead and 2 stuck pixels, but they are near the edge of the screen and in one corner. The guy with the single dead pixel is/was pretty upset about it, the other one not so upset.

LCDs will have dead pixels, it is the "nature of the beast". The important thing is what Sony will set as it's replacement policy. They have a pretty good policy on their higher end LCD monitors. So there is hope. If you are worried about dead pixels, just make sure you buy from astore with a good return/exchange policy.

@AznFX,
The analog "nub" is hardly the worst offender in terms of design trade offs. That "honor" goes to the square button.Two more millimeters and there wouldn't have been any issues.

I actually like the fact that they included an analog control and the "nub" seems to be the best design they could have come up with, a stick would have been too easily broken. I wish it were a little bit higher up on the device (I have big hands), but then where would the D-Pad have gone? The only thing that would have made me happier was if there were two "nubs".

What is Sony's return policy on units with dead/stuck pixels? It shouldn't matter if you imported or not. A poorly manufactured unit deserves to be replaced, no matter from where you purchased it.

@ #35:
I'm am not aware of Sonys' current return policy. I know that during the initial launch when suppy was very tight they were not accepting returns for dead pixels. Now that supply is a bit freer, they hopefully have some sort of return or exchange policy.

The thing people need to realize or remember is that dead pixels are a fact of the technology in LCD panels. It is not a matter of poor manufacturing or quality control. All LCD panels have a pixel failure rate, every maker or seller of LCD based products has a varying spec for when they will consider their product for return and replacement.

Most will accept returns for a certain number of dead pixels or a lesser number of pixels if they are in the central area of the screen. But very few will replace a LCD product with a single dead pixel, regardless of placement.

Again, I suggest if you are overly troubled by this that you purchase not only the PSP but any LCD based device at a store with a liberal return policy. Otherwise you will be at the mercy of the manufacturer, and sometimes that will leave you feeling screwed over.

Nintendo has a 0-dead-pixel return policy. The system is guaranteed to be free of defects.

Wow, that is pretty amazing. I hope it forces Sony to do the same, but some how I don't think it will.

It's not the hardware. Its not the software. Its the fans that ensure that Nintendo systems are aimed at kids.

First of all, I I'm a nintendo Fan since almost 20 years (and bought a Playstation instead of a N64,because of Final Fantasy 64 never came to exist, but don't tell anyone), so I think my opinion is not biased towards Nintendo. First The PSP is great but not excellent. The problem is that Sony first portable console is trying to fight everyone with it and is going to lose in every fight and these are the winners:

Gaming- Nintendo WINS. even when the PsP is way better than the GBA and the DS, it doesn't have the battery that makes it truly portable, I can't be playing a game since portables are mostly for short plays during the day and the PSP battery last 6 hours of continuos play and it probably won't last as long after turning on and off continuosly (I own mostly Sony products, Vaio, NetMD, MiniDV and DV8, so I know how their batteries work). The Screen which is great but Fragile and too scary to break or scratch. I carry my GBA in my backpack and gets scratched by everything but the screen is safe; and maybe if the made some kind of cover for the PsP, and it came with it, not on a "value pack" or something. The Disc drive was not necessary, I would have rather have little memory sticks with games than a cd that would probably skip (they just did this for the piracy not for the technology). The games are probably going to be better than DS, since a lot of franchises are in the sony wagon, but does it means we are going to get new games or just more of the same? (the PS2 just got a few original games and most sequels are crap, and Nintendo is doing kind of same because it has great original games but all of them have mario or something related.

Movies- any portable DVD player has bigger screens, Better sound, no new formats to buy (i rent my movies and watch them while i do something else) longer battery (about 8 hours on my Panasonic one).

Music - I can't believe people that rather have a big Psp for listening to music (about 150 songs if you buy a $200 1GB memory stick which bring the price to $450 for a Music playing PSP). When i go To the gym, a lot of people in there are carrying Ipods (which at least carries 5,000 songs, and constantly are taking care of it so it doesn't get bang up with the weights and machines. let alone have one big Lcd Screen in your pocket asking to break. For that I carry flash 512mb mp3 on my arm and don't care if it breaks because it was very cheap. (my dog chew it once and broke the screen, ha!) I even got a mp3 cellphone and don't use because of the size and quick draining of batteries.

The Good About PSP it's that it is all of this things in one, and very cheap ($259). but the problem it doesn't fell right. let alone the little keyboards thay are adding for IM, the cellphone addon, the TV thing in the works, etc. etc.

Sony first should try to focus in getting the gaming people happy, and not try to fight for all the portable markets, because it's going to lose, like those media center Pcs Microsoft wants people to have next to their $5,000 Plasma Tv, and forget that those giant grey boxes look like crap in a living room.

i will be 1 of a million that will get the psp next week. i will not use it for playing my mp3, i already have my notebook at work for that. i will not listen to music on my way to and from work, i already have my car audio for that. i will not watch movies on it, i already have my hdtv and dvd player at home. so why will i buy a psp? because when:
1. i take a crap; i can play games.
2. i wait in the doctor's lounge; i can play games.
3. i wait at the airport lounge; i can play games.
4. i do my laundry; i can play games.
5. i want to play games; i can play games.

now, i only have the old gameboy color and that was good for me. this is an upgrade i wanted. did you say you can play mp3 or watch movies with the psp too? well, that works for me as well. period.

The PSP better and I mean better have web browsing and email cababilities. I have $250 and I'm still at odds whether to buy an RCA Lyra A/V Jukebox(RD2780 or 82 I haven't decided) or the PSP. The PSP has games,($40-$50) music,(you've got to buy Memory cards $45- $120 for anything decent) it stores photos and plays movies ($20- $35 on UMDs or converting clips). Clips are not good enough, I want whole movies! The Lyra has a 20 GB hard drive and can hold music, photos and full length movies at no extra charge. I can get 10,000 songs, tons of photos or 80 hours of video that I can either record directly from my TV or straight from my VCR or DVD player. The only thing that would get my attention is if I could surf the web at broadband speeds and the pages and sites appear exactly like on my PC and the of course games. If I get board with a game that's another $40-$50 investment or a movie that's another $20 where as with the Lyra I could record The Apprentice season, The Contender season, Napolean Dynamite, The Incredibles, Anchorman, Chronicles of Riddick and a couple music videos for nothing.

OK, I'll be the first to admit that I don't own a PSP, and I haven't had more than about 5 minutes of hands on experience with it, but at this point I'm still on the fence.
Every time I find something I like about the PSP, I happen to find something that I don't like about it.
For example, I love the ability to play movies, music, and more on one handheld, and the orinetation of the system doesn't bother me. What does bother me though is the memory stick. I'll need to shell out at least $100 extra to have a gig of memory, and that's for everything, not just music.
Personally, I can see both sides of the arguement, and I'm a huge fan of sony.

April 11, 2005...No comments since just after the official US PSP launch. All critics have been silenced, all gamers are happily occupied gaming.

Soon the Web browser, email, voice chat, word processor, etc... will be release adding even more functionality to the greatest and most important device released since the Walkman.

And this is only the begining.