In a week of consumer electronics madness, Sony announced it is introducing Skype features to its recently refreshed PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld entertainment system.
Skype offers free VoIP services and boasts more than 246 million members. The PSP-Skype partnership will offer gamers free voice calls between Skype users, presence features that let them see which friends are online and available to talk, SkypeOut calls to make calls to landlines and mobile phones anywhere in the world, and other standard Skype services.
“We don’t know beyond a shadow of a doubt if Skype will be successful on a PSP,” said Michael Goodman, a Yankee Group analyst. “We do know there has been some success with Skype on mobile devices. The PSP is a mobile device.”
Typically, Goodman explained, people who use Skype on mobile devices are power mobile users who access the service while traveling, particularly internationally.
VoIP Value-Add
The Skype-PSP deal is the first time the VoIP service has been crossed with an entertainment device. Of course, the PSP isn’t just any entertainment device — or at least Sony isn’t positioning it that way. To understand Sony’s motivation for partnering with Skype, Goodman said, you have to take a step back and look at Sony’s aspirations for the PSP.
According to Goodman, those aspirations were not to develop just another handheld gaming system. Sony has positioned the PSP to be a full-fledged media player. Goodman said the device does a good job at playing music and showing videos. Now, Sony is adding applications that will enhance the value of the PSP.
“Is Skype going to enhance the value for everybody? Absolutely not. But for a segment of the marketplace, it will. It will be interesting to watch over time how large of a user base it wins and who adopts it,” Goodman said. “If it is easy…