Sony has big plans for the PSP and its proprietary format, the Universal Media Disc (UMD). That was the message Sony Computer Entertainment president and CEO Ken Kutaragi was trying to convey yesterday when he spoke in front of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan's Professional Activities Committee conference.
Firstly, Kutaragi confirmed rumors that Sony is working on a special peripheral that will allow the PSP to be used as a mobile phone. He also confirmed plans to add Web browsing functionality to the sleek handheld, something that was first revealed when a Sony developer updater was discovered on Sony's Web site last week. However, Kutaragi did not mention any of the other PSP functionalities in the updater, which will render consumer PSPs useless if downloaded.
Perhaps more remarkable was Kutaragi's announcement that Sony will release the specs for the UMD, allowing other electronics manufacturers to create UMD players and peripherals. "We are already planning to make the UMD disc media into an open standard," said Kutaragi. Historically, Sony has been tightfisted with its proprietary formats, letting few if any external electronics makers create players using the format. However, in almost every instance, this has led to a format that was not popularly adopted, as was the case with Betamax videocassettes and the Minidisc audio format.
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