PSP=iPod killer?

Apple’s iPod is an amazing piece of technology. Even after 3-4 years, no one else has been able to come up with a design that matches its features. Between the iPod itself, it’s operating system, ease of use with iTunes, and all the content available from Apple’s iTunes Music store, no other digital audio device yet released has matched it. Apple certainly has had an amazing run. Like the Roman Empire though, nothing lasts forever. Sooner or later someone will come up with a device that will make the iPod look like yesterday’s news. As of 3/24/05, that may be now.

I’ve yet to even touch a Sony PSP portable game system and I’m worried. Should I be? Let’s look at this device and see how it compares to an iPod.

The iPod plays music (DRMed AAC, AAC, MP3, ect) and it performs this task very well. It’s sturdy, well crafted, easy to use. It can also serve as a portable hard drive (especially the 10-40 Gb models of any generation). The iPod Photo will display pictures in glorious 64K + colors and link to cameras to store photos. There is also a lot of third-party hardware available for the iPod. What else can it do? What else SHOULD it do? It does exactly what Apple designed it for. They sell them in various shapes and sizes from the 512Kb Shuffle, to the monster 60 Gb iPod Photo. Prices range from $99 to $449.

The Sony PSP plays music in various formats (though not as varied as the iPod). If that were the end of the story I wouldn’t bother being worried. The PSP however does a heck of a lot more than that. It plays video games (duh). Playability is not a constant of course. No more than any particular flavor of music. The games I have seen reviewed all have one thing in common though. The reviewer’s gush about how the games look on the 4.3’ screen the PSP has. The screen itself is a 16:9 aspect wide screen TFT LCD. Its resolution is set to 480 X 272 pixels and it displays over 16 million colors. Starting to feel a little uneasy? I’m not done yet.

The games and pre-recorded movies come on yet another Sony proprietary standard disk they call UMD (Universal Media Disk). The disk is approximately 60mm in diameter and will hold about 1.8 Gb of storage. Using the H.264/MPEG 4 compression scheme, it can hold at least what passes for a standard movie length these days (The first million sold come with Spider-Man 2). So far the only movies available will come from the catalogs that Sony owns. However, this is a considerable amount of content. There are no current UMD recordable drives that I know of but knowing Sony, how long will this last?

The PSP also connects directly to Mac/PC computers through a USB-2 mini b connector. Once attached, it acts like any other portable storage device. You set up the various folders required for each type of media and simply drop and drag the stuff you want to do. Its portable storage is done through Sony’s Memory stick Duo flash memory cards. When you buy the PSP, they give you a 32 Mb stick which really isn’t too much, but 256 Mb sticks aren’t that expensive. Still not that much granted, but there are reports of 2 Gb sticks coming down the line. Now we’re starting to get into iPod mini territory.

So ok, it plays music, movies, and games. Big deal. Yes, it is a big deal. How about included 802.11b Wi-Fi? The units can seamlessly and easily play networked games that support this feature. How about the fact that 16 (yes 16) of these units can network together. I haven’t heard anything about a web browser yet, but how long before that comes along? This is only the first model. Future models could include PDA functions as well. Right now, it’s sold as a portable game system. With very little tweaking it could be a lot more.

AH! But what about accessories? Apple has a ton of companies making stuff for the iPod. PSP can’t match that! You would be right in saying so. I don’t think that will last for long however. Intec and a few others already have some products available and the PSP has barely been released.

Sony has made some deals with some of the other movie studios as well (Lion’s Gate and Disney) for select movies to come out in the UMD format.

Another scary thought is the price. By itself, the PSP is going to sell for $250. Considering what you get, that is not a bad price for a unit like this. Undoubtedly, the price will become even lower once the initial hype is gone.

OK. I’ve said a lot of nice things so far about the PSP. Now here’s where I think Sony made a mistake. Steve Jobs has said repeatedly that most people don’t want to watch video on a small screen and he might be right. Sony should have put some kind of AV output on the PSP to plug it into a TV. Battery life is another issue. I have read reports everywhere from 3 to 10 hours of battery life for the PSP. This is a difficult issue to pin down and will most likely depend on what you’re using it for. Just listening to music will draw much less power that playing games or watching videos. Having a headset plugged in will draw less juice that the built-in stereo speakers of questionable quality.

Even with its drawbacks, the PSP is still an amazing piece of tech. What can Apple do to counter it (Assuming they feel the need to)? A video iPod with a 4.5 to 5 inch screen would do it. License (if they will) the UMD drive (playback only), add a 20-40 Gb drive, AV in/out, FireWire (or USB 2) connectivity, and 802.11b/g wireless support. Protect the screen better than Sony does with a wrap-around hard cover. Put in some software to give it some PVR (personal video recorder) features. OH, and sell it for less than $400.

Apple is king of the heap right now. Whether they will be able to say the same by Christmas is not certain. The one thing they have going for them that the PSP cannot (and never will with a 4.3 inch screen) match is portability. Between the iPod Shuffle and the iPod mini, they have two great products. The full-size iPod and iPod Photo kind of serve a different market in my opinion and it’s this market that is most vulnerable to the PSP.

Have any of our regular readers played with a PSP yet? How is the look and feel of the unit as compared to the Nintendo DS? What are your thoughts about the PSP in relation to the iPod? Sony will most likely sell a lot of these. I wonder if the people that buy them will still feel the need for an iPod? Especially with more memory attached. Like I said, I haven’t tried one yet (Hey Sony, send me a review copy!), I can’t say whether or not I would recommend this over an iPod. Since this has been a somewhat heated issue elsewhere, please keep your answers civil and to the point.