The PSP’s path to outshine the Walkman

PSP Value Pack - Image 1When the PSP was first released, Ken Kutaragi announced that it would be the Walkman of this century. While this sounded a bit questionable, it made people wonder if it could be possible. The handheld market was for a long time Nintendo‘s domain, and all previous challengers have been put down. So now, a good three years after the PSPs release, BBC took a bold step to analyze how the handheld’s doing.

While its jump from shipping half a million units in 2004 to a whopping 24.7 million as off December 2006 may sound impressive, Nintendo still has the majority of the market share. Nintendo has shipped 35m units of the DS and DS Lite within that same timespan.

These numbers tell only half the story. It seems that the PSP sales have dropped by 72% this holiday season, although software sales increased by 24% according to PGR. This could be a sign that the market is already saturated. In terms of games, the Nintendo DS has a larger library with more games being released for it as well as large libraries of GBA and GB games.

So what are the future plans for the PSP? The people at Sony are envisioning the PSP and its PS3 connectivity to be the next big thing. The Remote Play feature will allow the PSP to wirelessly access pictures, videos, and audio content stored on the PS3 up to a range of around 25-30 meters. In addition to this, access to the MP3 Walkman, iPods, and even digital cameras connected to the PS3 will be enabled.

The PSP becoming the Walkman of the 21st century might be a tall order, and judging from the numbers… We better wait and see what else Sony has in store to realize Kutaragi’s vision for the PSP.

PSP Value Pack - Image 1When the PSP was first released, Ken Kutaragi announced that it would be the Walkman of this century. While this sounded a bit questionable, it made people wonder if it could be possible. The handheld market was for a long time Nintendo‘s domain, and all previous challengers have been put down. So now, a good three years after the PSPs release, BBC took a bold step to analyze how the handheld’s doing.

While its jump from shipping half a million units in 2004 to a whopping 24.7 million as off December 2006 may sound impressive, Nintendo still has the majority of the market share. Nintendo has shipped 35m units of the DS and DS Lite within that same timespan.

These numbers tell only half the story. It seems that the PSP sales have dropped by 72% this holiday season, although software sales increased by 24% according to PGR. This could be a sign that the market is already saturated. In terms of games, the Nintendo DS has a larger library with more games being released for it as well as large libraries of GBA and GB games.

So what are the future plans for the PSP? The people at Sony are envisioning the PSP and its PS3 connectivity to be the next big thing. The Remote Play feature will allow the PSP to wirelessly access pictures, videos, and audio content stored on the PS3 up to a range of around 25-30 meters. In addition to this, access to the MP3 Walkman, iPods, and even digital cameras connected to the PS3 will be enabled.

The PSP becoming the Walkman of the 21st century might be a tall order, and judging from the numbers… We better wait and see what else Sony has in store to realize Kutaragi’s vision for the PSP.

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