Rumours have filtered out that Sony may be working on a new Playstation mobile phone. The rumours seem to suggest that the device, should it exist, might come in the form either of mobile-phone functionality added to the PSP, or adding Playstation-branded content to a beefed up game-playing Sony Ericsson phone.


The rumours began when Sony Computer Entertainment corporate executive Izumi Kawanishi admitted that using the PSP as a mobile phone was “a possibility” that he is personally interested in. According to IGN:

“Could the PSP ever replace your cell phone? “There is a possibility,” said Kawanishi. “I won’t deny it. Personally, I’m interested in it. Of course, it’s not the case that you can connect to wireless LAN everywhere, so you can’t call it a permanent connection. But cell phones are permanently connected. Cell phones get more interesting as their data transfer rate increases, and I think it would be extremely interesting to try something like that.”

Sony Ericsson’s senior vice president of Product and Application Planning, Rikko Sakaguchi, fuelled the rumour further by claiming that the company “is working on something” (related to the PlayStation phone), but that “the surprise must be kept for the future.”

This makes perfect sense for Sony. Several well-respected individual branded technologies that Sony owns, such as the Walkman and CyberShot, have made their way onto Sony Ericsson phones as the technology has transferred from Sony’s specialist devices to Sony Ericsson’s high-end phones. Making a Sony Ericsson phone based on the PlayStation would be just another example of technology (and brand) transfer between the two companies.

Expect a lot more rumours on this one before anything official is announced.

[Source: Joystiq, IGN, Asia CNet]