Hasta La Gadget!

Look out Angry Birds, there may soon be another suite of addictive smartphone games battling for gamers’ attention. Global electronics giant Sony is said to be planning its own game-playing smartphone release, to be debuted at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona come February.

It’s only been about two months since Sony CFO Masaru Kato hinted at the company’s continued push into mobile gaming, but according to Bloomberg mobile development sources, that push will bring the gaming phone as well as an updated version of the company’s previous mobile gaming product, the PSP (Playstation Portable).

“The PSP being a proprietary platform was more concentrated I’d say on the core gaming segment than the light game,” Kato said in last November’s earnings call, “but now we are addressing that market as well.”

Also on Wednesday, Nintendo announced the upcoming March 27 launch of a 3-D mobile gaming device, the Nintendo 3DS. Like Sony’s PSPgo, the 3DS will cost $250.

Although we dug Sony’s PSP and PSPgo in terms of gadgetry, sales have been lackluster compared to that of Nintendo’s mobile gaming platform, the Nintendo DS. Research group NPD says Sony trails Nintendo in U.S. sales by tens of millions of units.

Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sony’s original PSP used games launched on a proprietary storage system developed by Sony, the universal media disc. Like Sony’s previous attempt at proprietary storage cartridges with the MiniDisc of the 1990’s, widespread adoption of the UMD failed due to the format’s proprietary nature as well as the lack of read/write devices available. Sony’s follow-up device, the PSPgo, tried to improve upon this system with an on-board hard drive on which gamers could store media, and no optical disc. Instead, Sony distributes all games digitally, and customers download them over Wi-Fi connections.

Stronger emphasis on Sony’s push into the smartphone gaming space signals the company’s willingness to take on competitors like Apple and Android OS-based manufacturers. Still, the cheap prices for games in Apple’s App Store or the Android Market may be difficult to beat. And if Sony were to launch its own app store with the device, differentiation might prove to be an issue as well. Who the hell can keep up with all the app stores out there today anyway?

Photo: The Sony PSPgo/Sony Corp.

See Also:

• Sony Draws Ire With PSP Graffiti
• Sony PSP Go Leaked on Video, Official Photos Emerge
• Game Over For Sony PSP Phone?
• Rumor: Sony Ericsson Plans Android 3 PlayStation Phone
• Leaked Photo: Is This the Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone …

How far we’ve come. It was only a couple of years ago that Lenovo was closing a deal to sell its mobile phone business, but a quick re-acquisition in late 2009 and some recent heavy flirtation with the tablet form factor have led to the creation of a whole new unit in the company’s hierarchy, one dedicated to the development of smartphones, tablets, TVs, and other internet-connected devices. Headed up by Liu Jun and working out of Beijing, this squad of designers and engineers will focus on harnessing the “tremendous growth potential of the mobile internet.” Cloud computing will be a major feature of Lenovo’s plans moving forward, which places its goals for the future right in line with just about everyone else’s. Still, it’s good to see one of the big desktop computing players diversifying its portfolio with gusto.

Lenovo setting up a specialist unit for tablets and smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Skype has just announced that “it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Qik,” according to the Qik blog. Qik allows users to stream and shoot video from their smartphones.

There’s talk that it will be bought for $100 million, then we heard $150 million — we’re really not sure just yet. Either way, it will probably be for a big chunk of change.

Skype has already reached out to Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users by introducing mobile video calling for those devices. The acquisition of Qik could help Skype reel in more of the mobile videoconferencing market. According to Qik’s blog, the company had a huge year in 2010. It started the year with 600,000 users and ended with 5 million users, which is undoubtedly thanks to its partnerships with companies including Sprint, T-Mobile, Nokia, HTC, and Samsung.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch, Skype said the deal will add video “recording, sharing and storing capabilities to Skype’s product portfolio.”

Out and about in Nippori/Yanaka recently I spotted these transparent QR codes over the top of the usual Tokyo area maps.

The whole sign was covered with a special film and certain key parts of the district were highlighted in squares with a transparent code, scanning which would send you to a site with a detailed route map highlighting how to get there. There were also other QR codes embedded in signs on the pavement near local attractions.

It is part of a Taitoku scheme to promote Yanaka to sightseers, including foreign tourists. The project was just a month-long experiment and appears to be over for now, though of course it is laudable that the local authorities are trying to make it easier for visitors venturing out of Asakusa, Ginza et al into the labyrinthine warren that is the old streets of Yanaka. However, the codes only worked with NTT DoCoMo phones and surely foreign tourists would not be likely to have that kind of handset.

A case of their heart being in the right place? Possibly. Certainly, the attitude is there but the results may not be much. The other main target for the scheme is apparently the elderly, who, though it would be patronizing and naive to exclude from projects involving technological tools, nonetheless arguably may not be the most appropriate group for utilizing the codes. In 2011 the organizers hope to expand the trial, so watch this space for more.