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Sony and S Curve

Sony PSP Prototypes 

31 May 2004

What does the Sony PlayStation Personal (PSP) actually look like?

 

Interestingly, Sony’s website carries no picture of the PSP, and they didn’t show any pictures when they announced the product’s launch several weeks ago.  The internet, however, has many different pictures of objects called “Sony PSP.” 

 

Here’s the picture that I used in last week’s update. It’s from The New York Times in mid-May….

 

 

1. Sony’s PlayStation Personal (PSP) (src: NYT) (May 04)

 

 

Given that this was recently in the “newspaper of record,” it has my vote for what the PSP will actually look like.  It is also consistent with an “official” picture released by Sony in November 2003 …

 

 

2. Official PSP, Nov. 2003

 

But here’s a picture of a different PSP from an online vendor …

 

 

3. Hinged Screen PSP

 

 

A fourth view of Sony’s PSP comes from a Russian website ….

 

 

 

4. PSP – Clie version

 

 

… And a fifth picture comes from the online edition of the German mass circulation magazine Der Spiegel.

 

 

 

5. German PSP

 

Translating the German text reveals the German PSP to be a design suggestion from the editors at Der Spiegel.  They should probably stick to their day jobs.

 

Why are there so many different pictures of the Sony PSP?  Here are two explanations:

 

  1. Sony made a lot of prototypes before launch, and some pictures leaked to the public.   Frequent prototyping is vitally important in designing new products.  This is especially true when designing new consumer electronics platforms, because small changes in design can have a huge impact on the product’s success and cost.  Perhaps some of these pictures represent earlier designs of the product that will be launched later this year.

 

Sony has been working on a handheld game system since 1998, and almost launched a product in 2000.  Several key software developers, like Square and Capcom, had been working on software for that launch.  Perhaps some of these pictures are the photographic remains of this earlier effort.

 

  1. These pictures represent artists’ conceptions of a product that is eagerly anticipated.   The long delay between announcement and launch created an opportunity for students and game enthusiasts to “design their own” PSP. 

 

There are many other pictures of the PSP on the internet which are clearly design studies.  The wide variety of approaches underscores the well-developed demand for a product like the one Sony will be launching at the end of the year. 

 

All of this buzz should be helpful to Sony, but it also reflects a product that is long overdue.  Nintendo has been consistently launching new enhancements to its GameBoy system -- three major new versions since the original GameBoy launched in 1989. 

 

Sony hesitated for four years before entering the handheld market.  We’ll know soon whether that was the right decision, and whether this is the right time for the “Walkman of the 21st century.”

 

More Information

 

  1. Last week’s update was called GameBoy Wars, and discussed Sony’s PSP vs Nintendo’s GameBoy DS. Here’s a link:

 http://www.biz-architect.com/gameboy_wars.htm

 

  1. The Nov 2003 “official” picture of the Sony PSP is here: http://www.i4u.com/article799.html

 

  1. You can find the hinge PSP here: www.consoles4u.8m.com/ sonypsp.html

 

  1. The PSP Clie is here: www.handy.ru/news/ news1483.html

 

  1. The Der Spiegel Reference is here: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzkultur/0,1518,grossbild-293847-266290,00.html

 

  1. Any time you need a quick translation, try Babelfish. http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

 

 

  1. Sony has been working on a PSP since 1998, and had originally targeted a launch date of 2000 before scrapping the project.  http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=new&aid=1809

 

 

 

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