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多家机构分析认为索尼PSP品牌手机前景并不明朗

发布时间:2010-08-16 12:55:53 Tags:,,

索尼要将手机和掌机结合在一起推出PSP手机的新闻无疑是上周的一大热点,不少人都认为这种组合式手机肯定能和苹果iPhone分庭抗礼。

瘾科技在报道这篇独家新闻时很确信的称,索尼推PSP手机的新闻并不是什么传闻,而是非常真实的,并披露了不少关于该手机的信息。

psp-2

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不过该新闻一出同时也引来了不少分析师的质疑,与他们认为不同的游戏模式和索尼内部结构将成为该PSP手机的主要绊脚石。

英国调研公司Game Investor Consulting分析师Rick Gibson称,社交游戏市场和索尼自主掌机业务的整合将是索尼需要解决的一个大问题。

他说:“如果索尼PSP游戏代码能够试用在手机上的话,这对游戏开放商来说比较容易接受,索尼也能达到他们拓展用户群的目标。但是如果索尼仿照之前诺基亚N-Gage路线,游戏需要重新编码,游戏开发商可能就不会接受了。”

同时,Screen Digest Games集团分析师Ed Barton认为即使PSP游戏能够试用在手机上,游戏软件的定价也将是一个大问题。

Ed Barton说:“手机游戏和PSP、DS掌机游戏完全是两种不同的商业模式,软件定价机制也完全不同。iPhone上最贵游戏大约在5.99英镑,但是 PSP上《合金装备:和平行者》售价却在29.99英镑,要想平衡双平台的游戏价格是件很难的事情。再加上大部分用户不会签订一个长期服务协议,一切都看起来都不是很平坦。

Ed Barton还透露说,由于合资公司索尼爱立信的存在,索尼的其它部门将不会被允许制造手机。索尼要是想推出自主手机就必须对索尼爱立信进行拆分或做出其它决定,不过这一切很显得很困难。

因此,Ed Barton认为更可能的是索爱将使用PSP的品牌推出手机,而不是对掌机业务的扩充。

此外Google Android系统也是索尼要面临的一大挑战。Mobile Entertainment副编辑Stuart O’Brien称,索尼要想使用Android系统就得建立自己的应用商店,而Google Android系统在游戏市场的份额却在降低,似乎有点此消彼长的意思。尽管在软件定价上会遭遇一定的困难,但坦白的讲,Android还是最为吸引索尼的系统。

不过Rick Gibson并这么看,他认为索爱要做的就是说服电信运营商PSP手机将会是一款极受市场欢迎的产品,但是不能让他们参与应用商店的分成,因为iPhone的成功表明不能让运营商们触及其它收入。

对于PSP手机的质疑还有很多,但究竟如何还得靠索尼自己运筹帷幄,而且这还只是我们一相情愿的在这预测,等见到PSP手机发布时再看吧。

The holy union of a Sony Ericsson mobile phone along with Sony’s own PSP handheld may have all the credentials to be an iPhone killer, but analysts told Develop today that the long-rumoured device would need to overcome several thorny challenges to become a reality.

Last night tech site Engadget wagered much of its strong reputation on an exclusive news report which claimed the ‘PlayStation Phone’ is no longer just a dream idea on paper.

The publication wrote that “this is not a random rumour; we have reason to believe that what we’ve heard and seen is real and coming to market”.

Engadget says that the device is based on the upcoming mobile OS Android 3.0, and features an 800×480 screen stretching as far as 4.1 inches.

That would presumably be a touch-screen, as the device features a horizontal slide compartment that eschews a physical keyboard with a controller set-up similar to PSPgo’s.

And the bold claim of a fully converged PlayStation Phone goes one step further, with Engadget suggesting the device will be “graphically in the range of PSX or PSP”.

It added that “titles currently being shown off seem to be focused around some older PSX as well as new PSP offerings, with God of War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and LittleBigPlanet possibly on tap.”

Yet it was not this terrifying technical challenge that analysts had focused their pessimism on. Nor was it the poorly-kept secret that Sony is building a PSP2.

One of the biggest problems the scenario presents, analysts say, is the convergence of the social mobile gaming market and Sony’s own handheld business.

“It’s only viable if code for PSP games can be re-used on the mobile, which will be easy to sell to publishers as a way of expanding their target audience,” said Game Investor Consulting’s Rick Gibson.

“If Sony takes the same route that Nokia did with N-Gage, then it will face the same problems. If Sony tells developers they have a brand new mobile platform, separate from PSP, which games will

need to be recoded from the ground-up, then software developers will not adopt it”.

Meanwhile, Screen Digest Games Analyst Ed Barton said that – even if PSP games were made available on mobile – then the software pricing model would present dangers.

Said Barton: “Mobile phone gaming is a completely different business model from DS and PSP. The pricing model is completely different – customers are used to paying for £1 games.

“The most expensive iPhone game I can think of is £5.99, and yet Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker sells for £29.99.

“I’d say it’s hard to merge the two. Coupled with the whole difficulty of getting people to sign up to long-term mobile contracts, there’s just so much in the way.”

Barton said that the most convincing element to the Engadget report was indeed that the news outlet is staking much of its reputation on the story.

Engadget has often reported rumours that turn out to be accurate. It first broke news of Microsoft’s motion control device, Kinect.

Barton continued to outline his reservations: “To my knowledge, one of the conditions of the Sony Ericsson joint-venture is that no other Sony division is allowed to make its own phone devices,” he said.

“So that joint-venture would have to be un-picked, or a deal would have to be made. That’s not easy either”.

He said it was more likely that Sony Ericsson would manufacture a phone that uses the PSP brand, as opposed to a true extension to the handheld.

However, Gibson said the PlayStation Phone model “has many challenges but is just about commercially viable”.

Key to the plan is Sony’s apparent adoption of Google’s open-source Android platform.

Mobile Entertainment associate editor Stuart O’Brien explained that Sony could freely build its own app marketplace using Android and – crucially – Google’s cut of game sales would be pushed out of the equation.

Google currently takes a 30 per cent stake in mobile games and apps sold over Android’s store, as does Apple on the App Store. Microsoft will implement the same structure on the Windows Mobile 7 platform.

But Android is unique in that companies such as Vodafone have built their own marketplace from the OS and take a sales cut for themselves.

“The reason Google does this is it wants its Android OS everywhere – even the modified versions – and will implement advertising models in these systems at a later date,” O’Brien said.

That Android model may be the biggest temptation for Sony, despite the struggles with pricing its own software.

Gibson welcomed the idea of a Sony mobile device using Android.

“What Sony has struggled to do in the past is convince developers and publishers to make PSP games that are not just watered-down console games – and instead games specifically suited to handheld gaming,” he said.

“The marketplace a PlayStation Phone could provide may be the answer to that long-running problem.

“People who buy Android handsets are, largely, males with good disposable income. With the power of Sony’s PSP back catalogue and the PlayStation brand, this could be a good model for them.”

Still, there would be further obstacles to overcome, says Gibson.

“I don’t think the biggest challenge is Android. I think the hardest thing for Sony Ericsson to do is walk into network operators and convince them that their new PlayStation Phone is so desirable that network operators would still be interested in a deal where Sony keeps all the revenues from app sales – which is effectively what Apple did with AT&T and O2 and the rest.

“Can Sony tell network operators that they’re being cut out, the way Apple could? I would say that’s a difficult proposition. It’s a rare privilege.

“It’s a huge reason why iPhone is so successful, because network operators don’t get their hands on any additional revenues – they are just a network pipe. That freed up the app business model and the rest is history.”

Develop contacted Sony on the Engadget story, though the platform holder declined to comment.

Key to the reason why rumours of that elusive PlayStation Phone have come and gone in waves is that the idea, in principal, works.

“Considering the position that SCE is in, the company is languishing behind its rivals in the handheld space, and it could easily be looking for unconventional routes for its software,” said Gibson.

“It’s easy to read in this an air of desperation from Sony – PSPgo hasn’t become particularly successful, and perhaps this is the natural evolution from that.”

But Barton concluded that, while the platform holders appear to be interested in social gaming, the emerging market is low on the priority list.

“Social gaming is growing incredibly fast. We think it’s made something around the region of $700 million this year already, globally,” Gibson said.

“But there’s still quite a difference in scale – in the US alone we’re looking at a $20 billion market for packaged retail software sales.”

“I think with the platform holders today, the priority remains packaged goods and nurturing digital distribution channels – which are still relatively young.”(source:develop-online/mydrivers)


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