<movie_guy_voice>In a world… where second place is failure…  In a time… with only winning and losing…  In a future… with only black and white…</movie_guy_voice>  Oh, I can’t keep it up…  I already read this week’s PSP2 rumors and had planned to ignore them until I read Doc’s article this morning and his prediction just struck me as so similar to the state of the console market and prompted a few ideas I wanted to share, so I couldn’t hold back.

Keep reading to find out why I think what Doc says about the PSP2 doesn’t apply…

Can we all agree that the Xbox 360 is considered a success?  As a clever side point here, this is a great win-win situation for me as someone that comes down hard on Microsoft and the 360… either you agree with me and help me with the point of the article I’m writing, or you disagree with me and make me smile for knowing you think the 360 is a failure. Okay, back to my point at hand… the 360 is a success, but it’s being absolutely obliterated by the Wii in sales and marketshare.  Why would the automatically PSP2 be any different in a market against the iPhone/iPod and DS?  I mean at the end of the day, the PSP has sold over 50M units and I’d challenge anyone to say it’s a failure.  Sure, it’s not as successful as the Nintendo DS and not as successful as it could have been if a few things went down differently, but it’s nowhere near “a failure.”  Afterall, it’s the most successful non-Nintendo handheld video game system ever.  That’s nothing to sneeze at.

While I don’t put stock in a PSP2 hitting US shores this year (they could possibly squeak a Japanese launch in before the end of the year) I just don’t get the doom and gloom toward the PSP2 or the need for it to be a phone.  Look at the iPhone.  It’s not a great phone or a great gaming system.  It’s a good phone with a great interface and an okay gaming system with a great marketplace.  When you look at it objectively, I think you’ll have a hard time disagreeing with that.  The iPhone arguably  isnt the ideal phone or the ideal gaming system in its current state.  I’m still of the belief that do-it-all devices tend to fall short of narrowly focused specialized devices and until I’m proven wrong, I feel safer betting that way.

Where I will give folks (and ultimately Doc’s idea) credit is when you consider continual iterations.  Eventually the iPhone will be revised over and over again.  Eventually it will have its specs improved, possibly along with some interface improvements that allow it to more adequately handle aspects of gaming and different genres that it lacks now.  Even if the PSP2 does include phone functionality, it would be Sony’s first foray into combining all of this into one device and then you’ve got the pesky problem of telling gamers that they need a phone contract and they can only go through certain service providers, etc.  It’s a much harder sell than taking a phone that’s already got all that wrapped around it and saying “Hey, you’ve also got an entire gaming library at your fingertips!”

I’m not an expert in the cell phone industry, but I trust my buddy Frawlz when he says Sony Ericsson (an existing cell phone venture Sony is a part of) doesn’t make, how should I say this… “the best” phones.  At least not based on their track record.  As I see it, if Sony were to release a PSP Phone, it would be taking the system specs from an existing PSP model (now or then) and working it into a phone as an optional side product, not something they’re likely to make their core model.  I would see Sony Ericsson on the short list of “makes sense to partner with them” manufacturers.

As weird as this may seem at first, I see the iPhone as the portable industry’s Wii.  It’s not necessarily the best, but it’s got several distinguishable features and is trendy to own.  It’s elegant in its own right and appeals to the casual folks that may not be bogged down with predispositions over what they should be expecting and getting in a gaming device. It will be called a fad but will outlive the time frame people usually attribute to a fad, proving it wasn’t a fad afterall, but a change in the market.

The Nintendo DS is the portable industry’s Xbox 360.  It’s very successful, at the top of the food chain even, but it will likely be overtaken by a system that by all accounts shouldn’t overtake it… especially not based on specs, but it likely will.  It will still end its lifespan as a clearly successful product that had a slow start, but long, steady, and most importantly profitable run.

That leaves the PSP as the portable industry’s, well,  Playstation 3.  In terms of specs, most of what the PSP has is fine.  The two glaring issues are the missing 2nd stick and the slow-loading, battery slaying UMD drive.  Other than that, the PSP didn’t need a touch screen, it didn’t need dual screens, it didn’t need an accelerometer, etc. Piracy took a prominent place in slowing PSP sales and especially PSP game sales.  That’s arguably the single biggest factor in placing the PSP in the spot its in.  But, remember… as I alluded to above, that doesn’t mean it’s not worth being on the market.  That doesn’t mean it’s a failure.  Failing to reach full potential is not the same thing as being a failure.  The runner-up in a beauty pageant is still usually pretty damned hot.

Keep reading to find out what I would do for the PSP2…

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