Sony launches new gadget
2005-03-24 20:03
Washington - Japanese giant Sony launched the latest must-have gadget, a hand-held version of its best-selling PlayStation games console, on expectant US fans on Thursday.
Queues formed in the late hours of Wednesday outside US electronics stores in anticipation of the midnight launch of the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which first came out in Japan in December.
Sony is bidding to take on sector leader Nintendo with the sleek $250 device, which it bills as the 21st century equivalent of the original Walkman.
"The portable PlayStation was designed not only to play games but also to play back video content as well as music content," Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment North America, told the CNBC network.
"So I think it's really the first of its kind," he said, noting also the PSP's wireless capability and its upgradeable Memory Stick.
Sony is the leader in home video-game machines with its PlayStation series but Gameboy maker Nintendo remains by far the king among portables.
Nintendo late last year launched its latest offering, the DS, a console with a touch-sensitive double-screen billed as more user-friendly, particularly for children.
Nintendo released the DS in both the United States and Japan in time for holiday shoppers and has already sold some two million units, with a goal of five million by the end of March.
Sony reportedly put back the European launch of the PSP to make more units available in the lucrative US market.
Free movie
The electronics giant is offering the first million buyers of the machine in the United States copies of the "Spiderman 2" movie.
The PSP plays games and movies on a new medium called Universal Media Disc. Sony has been criticised for its decision to go with yet another media format, and for selling the device with just a 32-megabyte Memory Stick.
In comparison, Apple's best-selling iPod music player - one of the rival media that Sony has in its sights - retails with up to 60 gigabytes of built-in memory.
Sony plans to release a four gigabyte Memory Stick for the PSP by the end of the month in the United States, but the cost will approach a whopping $1 000.
Hirai defended the launch strategy for the PSP.
"When we designed the PlayStation Portable we wanted to make sure that we were delivering cutting-edge technology, both in terms of the hardware itself as well as the delivery medium," he said.