Adding more credence to that whole “Android on a PlayStation Phone” rumour, Sony are currently looking for a senior server engineer with “experience in mobile development, specifically Android.” The successful candidate should also have “knowledge/experience of online gaming.”
Rumours of Sony (with or without mobile partner Ericsson) launching a PSN enabled mobile device have been rife for months now. Whatever comes of this, it does appear Sony and Android is a combination we’ll be seeing some sort of manifestation of in the near future.
We should state, however, that, like a crafty ninja, Sony have since updated the job posting removing all mention of Google’s mobile OS. Was something let slip accidentally, perhaps? Or are we simply reading too much into the (now deleted) mention of Android in the first place?
Finally, how this all relates to the real-but-unconfirmed PSP2 is also something we’re looking forward to unravelling.
Source: PlayStation jobs (Thanks Eoin)
spooner
if this happens it’ll finally push me to get one of these smart phones.
Charmed_Fanatic
same hopefully its awesome!!
BalramRules
yup, da psp phone will just be AMAZIN (if tru)
Kovacs
I have scrambled the grammar police. You are in serious trouble, my friend. Serious trouble.
:)
3shirts
Repeat offender too
JesseDeya
Oh but I love my iPhone 4 so much already. Ahhh decisions.
I hope it can function like an ipad and just take a data sim card, because an always connected, Android/Sony powered PSP2 sounds like a pretty sweet device.
Danza Di Fuoco E Ghiaccio
Yay my first likeable phone!
bajere
NICE, this is very good news. if the PSP2 is going to be a success, it has to reduce the amount of gear people carry around with them. So PSP, web compatibly, camera and phone in one device is a must IMO. Sony need to get a smartphone into peoples hands, then offer the gaming side to people after. The dedicated portable gaming machine is dead. The only reason the DS survives is down to the fact its cheap, and people don’t mind leaving it in the draw and using it now and then… If Sony release a PSP2 at £200-£250 (which i feel it will be as they will pack it with tech) people want more than a ‘casual, now and then ill use it’ device.
We all own a PSP, and we don’t carry it around everywhere, but we do carry our mobile phones every day… Iv racked up more gaming time on Angry Birds than i have any of my PSP games!!! Not because its a better game, but because i’m not carrying a massive PSP everywhere with me just incase i want to game!
jimmy-google
I never used to carry my PSP around with me. Not becuase of what was in but because I had to carry UMDs with me and it was too big to fit in the pocket. My PSP Go on the other hand goes everwhere due to its size.
A PSP2 along the lines of an iphone maybe 200-250 but it’ll require a contract as well. Prices rocket the moment phone or GPS technology are included. A 16GB iphone sim free is about £500. The problem is when you include so much you tend to create a device that’s a jack of trades but master of none which is fine for a casual market that just wants to dip in to bits from time to time.
The iphone is not the greates music player on the market. It doesn’t have the best games. The camera is nowhere near the top end on phones. It’s not even that special when comes to phone calls or texts. What is does have is an amazing app store with endless apps available for free or at a cost. It’s something nothing else has been able to match or really compete with.
If the PSP2 tries to do everything but doesn’t master something then it will struggle much like the early ps3 years. The ps3 now has one of the best lineup of games and is one of the leading blu-ray players especially for the price.
The PSP Go was probably the right console but the timing was way off. Had the PSP 1000 had the spec of th PSP Go Sony maybe sitting in a far better position in the handheld market.
bajere
All fair points, but if Sony really pushed the unit for gaming, then added the other bits around it on the Android platform, then it would be more attractive to everyone imo.
I agree with the contract thing, but people will sign up to the contract as it would replace there current mobile contract
The Serb
I fully agree, the timing of the psp go was so far beyond bad it was unreal, however i recently bought a psp go and i am really loving it because of its size. i really hope that a psp phone is on the way. if they are intending the psp phone to be the psp2 then they will have a large market for the product as games will be designed specifically for the console/phone and thus they will have a monopoly on phone based gaming consoles,it would also be great if they added a application store,but even if they don’t it would still be great and i would still be willing to buy it. in terms of the iphone, i know it also has a lot of games but none of them can compare to a full psp game, which would also be a great selling point for the psp phone but i relly do hope that it is not as expensive as the iphone when it was first launched.
bunimomike
“As in, the mobile OS. Not a cyborg with nice tools.”
Please don’t get tuffcub started. :-p
lenn117
seems like something TC would say doesn’t it
Kovacs
No innuendo was meant by that comment. Seriously. You people …
3shirts
I really hope this is true. It makes sense, Android is the fastest growing mobile platform and Sony Ericcsson already product handsets based on it
mrfodder
How about the PSPad runs Android for standard pad applications with Sony Media applications for music, video, games? 7 inch or 10 inch.
jimmy-google
If Sony want to replace my ipod, phone and psp with one device they’re going to have a touch job.
The battery will need to be imense. I couldn’t even get 4 hours of gameplay using wi-fi on my PSP and I can drain my phone battery most days due to the amount I’m on the web with it. I already have over 30GB of games on my PSP and more than 50GB music on my ipod. If I was to add apps and video on top of that the hard drive will have to be big to support it (and a memory stick slot). It’d also need a decent cybershot 8MB camera to replace my phones one. I’m not sure how they would fit a keypad and game controls in (touch alone is not enough).
First and formost I want them to make a decent handheld console that is hard to hack and keeps piracy down. Follow that with some good games (Uncharted on a PSP2 would be a good start). The rest of the features can come later.
DJ-Katy
Had my HTC Desire (Android 2.2) for about a month now, absolutely epic phone, I really can’t imagine Sony coming up with anything nearly as good in a PSP2 phone, so it’s going to be real hard work for them convincing me.
KeRaSh
I totally agree with you. I love my HTC Desire and still prefer it to my iPhone 4 which I got from work… I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
minerwilly
Hooray for Katy finally at long last some Android love from a contributor ! I have a HTC Desire and they are indeed amazing .
I feel like only the cool people have PS3 and Android whereas the other lot have the 360’s , Iphones , laminated flooring , UGG boots and a North Face coat ;)
cc_star
I’m getting the Desire HD as soon as I can get my PAC number and move which I believe is in just over a fortnight
Kovacs
I would have bought an Android phone is one was available in this shithole country I live in.
cc_star
I really can’t see a PSP GameOS on an Android device
Android provides root access to the device, always has and always will, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it, so Sony will have a far bigger security hole than they have with modified batteries on early PSPs or USB dongles on fw3.41 powered PS3’s
They are not going to build a system which has an inerrant security hole at the point of inception, surely?
3shirts
There are other ways to fight piracy. It is not that widespread on Android at the moment because they fight it with the same methods that iTunes did for music; Make the legit routes easier, faster and value added.