Sony America’s PR manager, Al De Leon, has stated that the new PSP Go could allow development of other types of applications from both a gaming and non-gaming angle, like that seen on the iPhone or iTouch. With this announcement, this week, could this mean that the days of the Apple’s monopoly over the handheld multimedia experience is coming to an end?
Apple have had such a large monopoly over this kind of entertainment for such a long time now it would be very hard for Sony to muscle in on it. But with that said if Sony could offer something new to the experience then the new PSP could stand a chance. By saying that they need to offer something new that is something new not only to the iPod experience but also to the PSP experience too. Having just the option of full retail titles on the system as well as the applications doesn’t mean that Sony can swing people away from being part of the iPod generation. This is especially true if owners of the current PSPs cannot use their games on it nor is there an offer to have digital versions of the games that is at the current time.
It would be unfair to just look at this from Sony’s point of view; Apple does have a lot to offer the public. Looking at how the Apps Store has grown with so called “Bedroom Developers” taking up development duties for a lot of applications available, which has lead to a lot of very interesting applications that might not have been created if it were not for the Apps Store. Of course, none of these have been anything major or have tailed onto something that was already around, like the apps to access your Playstation Network details or Xbox Live account, but it still meant that some people who might not have been able to develop for a platform have been able to do so.
This battle was started by Nintendo with the DSi offering a service that is along the same lines of what both Sony propose and what Apple currently have. However, as the service Nintendo offer isn’t quite as powerful or adaptable, this makes the service not a competitor in this market but still worthy of a note.
Sony have a great opportunity here with the PSP Go, which could well take the crown from Apple’s touch screen range, although that is only if they take the PSP pass the limitations that the system has and improve the PSP Store with some truly interesting applications. But something more interesting that could come out of this is Apple changing their Apps Store into something more competitive to Sony if this plan goes through. If that does happen could it be that the Apps Store would offer more than just small games but could start to offer bigger games.
So what do you think about the new PSP Go’s interesting feature? If you had a choice between the two platforms, iPod or PSP Go which would you go for?
