The new Sony Playstation Portable has hit the streets and video gamers and portable media junkies all have an opinion about how this product will rock the world. Will it crush Apple's IPod? Probably not just yet but it has the potential.Most gamers have a Playstation2 in their household so why get a PSP? Well the answer is easy...Its just plain hot! It's the latest and the greatest gadget, so you know you gotta have it! It's a sex... I mean, sexy machine! The most amazing part of it is the large LCD screen. The visuals are better than most TV's! It's extremely ergonomic and not as bulky as I imagined.
The reality is that while it may be sleek and more current than the PS2, its not a complete universal media player. Unlike the PS2 which can playback audio and video CD and DVD re-writable discs, the PSP can only play personal files stored on Sony Memory Sticks. The UMD media format (Universal Media Disc), has a limited amount of game publishers and no re-writable features. They're similar to the Sony Mini Disc media that was released in the early '90's and made a slight comeback in the mid-'90's, (My Sony MD player has been collecting dust since the rise of MP3's). If Sony doesn't open up this media to some type of personal storage capability or create an internal hard drive, they may see a similar fate as their MD player.
In addition, the PSP doesn't support AV output, so you can't hook it up to the flat screen TV, or at least a non-Sony flat screen. Some of the Sony LCD and Plasma TV's in the 10-20K range at least support memory Stick playback and may come with WiFi connectivity or built-in UMD players in the future. Damn! Until then, you're stuck to your built-in screen.
If Sony doesn't address these obvious disadvantages, then Apple need not worry about their current reign of the digital music world just yet!
-Tripple
