Sony closes PS Phone lies

OK, nothing to see here, move along people...



P.S.
Out in time for Xmas 08

P.S.
Out in time for Xmas 08

"... but not for you, you filthy Europeans!!!!!! A-hahahahaha!!!!!!"

- said a Sony spokesperson

Solid confirmation PS phone project is in the works, if you ask me...

If they're not working on something along these lines then they really are morons.

Even if they are working on a phone they are morons

I'm sure all of this means "keep printing stuff about it" so come CES next year there'll be a big hullaballoo about it.

...Did I spell hullaballoo right? Firefox says no. But Firefox also says firefox isn't a word...

They most likely are not working actiavely on it NOW, but I bet this idea is part of a corporate roadmap, and has been for some time. Everything would, in fact, be very stupid.

Concider this: The Cell processor has been specifically designed for versatility. When they've managed to shrink it all the way down to 32 nm (which lies several years in the future, but they've already started the process), it will be pretty easy on the batteries. Of course they're going to put it in cell phones (and everything else); that has been the idea from the start. They're not making the Cell just to power the Playstation, they are planning to power everything with it, including next-gen toasters, television sets and telephones.

So, you got a mobile phone with a cell processor in it, which is able to run pretty much aly playstation game, it's got portable connectivity... and the PSP should be ready for an upgrade, or even a replacement by then... making a PSP2 with mobile phone functionality seems perfectly sensible, even though I guess it would be better to make a "real" phone phone which also is a good platform for gamiong, than the other way around (thet is, make a Sony Ericsson PlayMobile or something, rather than expaning the PSP brand).

Oh, and the N-gage is coming back. They're testing it now; expect to see models showing up again soon. They've realized that the first iteration was a horrybli FUBAR iteration of a really good idea, seeing as mobile gaming is actually a huge market. Hopefully, they'll get it right (well, at least less horribly wrong) this time around.

Will the phones have divX support?

I suppose when you think about it with the new iphone on the market Sony are sure to want to compete?

Considering the way our Sony Ericsson rep squirms uncomfortably every time we ask him about one, I'd say it's well on it's way. Don't trust Sony.

Terrible idea anyhow.

Olemak> If only the business world was so easy to plan for.....What you've wrote is exactly the reason why Sony is messing up so badly....arrogance in technical development giving way to infleixble products.

We'll see, I suppose. Mind you, I don't think a "PSPhone" featuring a 32 nm cell processor will happen in this decade... probably 2012 at the earliest, maybe even later, if ever.

One thing that should not be underestimated, is the economics of owning the licence to all the applied technology in a device. What I mean is, if Sony Ericsson makes an ARM-based phone, then they pay a licence fee to ARM Limited (owned by Acorn Computer and Apple) even if they produce the chip used internally.

Further, it might be worth noting that the ARM is based on the ancient RISC. The original RISC design was first used in mainframe supercomputers, back in the sixties. Half a century of miniaturisation and streamlining later, the power-hog used to build supercomputers is today found in almost every mobile phone on the planet, and lots of other devices too. It has evolved, become smaller, leaner and more powerful.

Sony, IBM and Toshiba plans to reduce the Cell processor iusing 32 nm techiques withing the next five years. I m just saying that the Cell is a really versatile processor, usable for pretty much anything, that it will be very small and power-efficient in about five or six yers time, and that Sony will "own" it (in partnership with IBM and Toshiba).

It will make a lot of sense to base a phone on that processor in 2012 or 2014. It will be cheaper to make a cell-based cellphone (heh) than to use an ARM processor, as sony owns the Cell license.

Such a phone - I suppose "device" is a more correct word - would be able to run any PS3 software without emulation, and should be able to handle PS2 and original PS titles too without much effort. Would it make sense to make use of these features, maybe even brand such a phone the "Playstation Phone" (PSPhone)?

I certainly think so. But they are obviously not working on this right now, as this lies five or six years in the future, but it is most likely on the agenda. Like the Playstation 4, which they're not really working on yet, they're just sorta planning it a bit.

Well, that's what I think, anyway. I bet Sony's pretty keen on breaking the ARM monopoly, just like they were able to break away from the licenced CPU they had to use in the PSOne (it was licenses from Silicon Graphics). MS killed the original Xbox for the exact same reason; t o move avway from licenced technology to stuff they held rights to themselves. I bet we'll see the same stuff happening for cellphones within the next decade. In fact, I'll bet you my old PSone

"any iteration of it [the cell] beyond the PS3 will be countable on one person's fingers."

Well, we're up to four already: Toshiba will be using it in a 1920×1080 HDTV. IBM have announced blade servers based on the Cell, and are also making a new supercomputer, The IBM Roadrunner, using the Cell. More iterations are in development, I think.

"Wasn't the Emotion Engine poised to conquer the world, too?"

120 million PSTWOs kinda suggest that it sorta did. However, the Emotion Engine was, unlike the Cell, developed for the Playstation exclusively. The Cell is a collaboration between three of the biggest movers in the field to design a rival to excisting microprocessor platforms with versatility and miniaturisation specifically in mind. It has a much bigger potential than the Emotion Engine.

However, I'm not some sort of Cell fanboi (do they exist?), so I'll shut up now

Owning rights to such technology and getting others to produce them would seem a better strategy than that Sony took before but I'm still a sceptic on the strategic need to own everything for overall market success. Paying a licence fee maybe accepting a loss of on-going profits per unit sold but its better than taking massive losses in the early product cycles, which must have horrific impacts on company cash flows. Sony is now slowly loosening its vertically based product development structure and this should hopefully mean that they are more driven by the users of the products. This brings me to the point of using cells in everything like phones. Again, this makes sense from an economic POV but consumers don't give a monkeys about the type of processor that power their TV, Phone or Fridge etc...its all about what they consider as the output of the product and whether it fulfills their original needs. Sony is just going to be screwed if it believes that just because the cell can produce PS3 games on a mobile that this will mean a successful product.

Sony no longer owns anything about Cell, it was somewhat of a missfire.

As for the phone ... another manufacture at this point will have a tough time to enter the market, they are too many already.

Drakon> Sony are still part of the STI alliance and thus has licence and intellectual rights I assume but just don't manufacture the cell anymore.....I'm not sure what you are commenting about when u mention about "misfiring"

Also....even though I don't think that Sony (SCEI) could enter into the phone market with just a plain "play PS3 game son your mobile" strategy, it doesn't mean its not possible for anyone to enter the market sucessfully....barriers to entry maybe high but the market nevers stays still and struggling companies will always drop out and let others enter.

Sony is already a heavy player in the mobile phone industry. Sony Ericsson is partly owned by Sony, obviously, and is one of the biggest players in the field, if not THE biggest player.

Nobody buys a device because of the technology inside it, of course, but because of what the device can do. Nobody really gives a rat's ass about the ARM processor.

However - sony (well, SOny Ericsson, I suppose) could theoretically put the cell in a mobile phone (in five years or so) wich would allow the phone to do lost of neat stuff, including playing any software written for the PS3 if they wanted to. But it could also do stuff like running powerpoint, predict weather patterns and who knows what mobile phones are expected to do in half a decade.

My point is simply this: In 2012, Sony (Ericsson) could put a 32 nm cell in a mobile phone at a lower cost than putting in a roughly corresponding ARM processor. In addition to doing what all state of the art mobile phones can do in 2012, the "Cell mobile" would aslo be capable of running anything in the (by then, presumably) sizeable PS3 playstation software library. That is a distinguishing feature.

I bet the people at Sony are also aware of this.