We have seen a number of smartphones launch in the past three years since the original iPhone hit the American market.
While not all these phones were positioned as potential iPhone killers, there is no doubt that a good majority of these new phones still adopted the core mantras that have made the iPhone a success.
Apart from the intuitive interface and admirable aesthetics, one of the other major aspects that have made the iPhone quite popular is the App Store. No wonder then that almost all the major rival smartphone platforms today have their own application markets. A major contribution to the adoption rate of the app market among users is the availability of a number of high quality gaming applications. Several studies in recent times have pointed out that gaming apps continue to nurture the iOS app ecosystem, which now consists of nearly 300,000 applications.
Perhaps taking a cue from this, Sony Ericsson is now rumored to be launching an Android based smartphone that will be targeted solely at the gamers. This Android handset, dubbed the PlayStation Phone, is said to sport some really sophisticated hardware including a 1 GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor, a 512MB RAM, a 1GB ROM, a screen between 3.7" and 4.1" and support for microSD based storage expansion.
Folks at Engadget claim to have received a leaked snapshot of the upcoming handset, which we have embedded below. As you can notice, the PlayStation phone will offer a multitouch-supported touchpad in addition to the familiar PlayStation control buttons for dedicated gaming. While Sony has stayed silent over these latest speculations, sources have indicated that the new PlayStation phone could launch in 2011.
In all likelihood, the new PlayStation phone may not be targeted at the iPhone audience and could instead be aimed at the younger population. However, it is worth noting that the early success of the iPhone against the likes of Nokia, Research in Motion and Windows Mobile too came due to the availability of apps that appealed to a wider audience. With the new gaming smartphone expected to be integrated with a Sony game app store, we wonder if the Japanese tech giant could offer a significant challenge to the current crop of smartphone manufacturers like Apple assuming it is for real and not a fake.
Do you think Apple should be worried? What are your thoughts on the PlayStation Phone?
[via Engadget]
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