Late last month, photos of a rumored PSP phone surfaced. The prototype looked like a Sony Ericsson cell phone mated with a PSP. Rumors, right? Know what they say, where there's smoke there's fire — with "they" being Sony.
"There's a lot of smoke, and I tell you there must be a fire somewhere," Sony Ericsson Chief Executive Bert Nordberg said during an interview, reports The Wall Street Journal. "Sony has an extremely strong offering in the gaming market, and that's very interesting."
The is not official confirmation, but more stoking of the rumor flames. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Sony PlayStation phone will probably carry Sony Ericsson's Xper ia brand and run on Google Android. Games will apparently be available via an application.
As Kotaku reported in October, the Sony Ericsson PSP phone is also reported to pack in 1GHz Qualcomm CPU, 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and a screen "in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches." The phone does not appear to have a PSP style numb, but rather, it looks like it could use a touch-sensitive track pad. UMD and Memory Sticks also appear to be eliminated.
Sony Ericsson's Nordberg believes that the current generation of smart phones is not "optimized for games". Sony and Sony Ericsson have steered clear of a PSP phone in the past over fears of damaging the PSP brand, but with increased competition from smart phones that could change.
"I haven't dug into that history," Nordberg said, "but the future might be brighter." Sony is a strong brand, he added, asking why shouldn't Sony Ericsson use that. "Gaming, including content, is a very interesting proposition." Very interesting, indeed. If Sony is able to leverage games with solid gaming hardware in a smart phone packaging, the company could be a serious contender for Apple.
Sony Ericsson CEO Hints at Games-Oriented Smartphone [WSJ] [Pic]