duckroll said:gofreak, I think what you're failing to understand, is that Sony really isn't "doing" anything here. We know exactly why this product exists, and it has very little if anything at all to do with Sony Computer Entertainment. Sony Ericsson has been for the last decade desperately trying to get some sort of agreement to take advantage of the more popular Playstation branding to try and make their phone line stronger in branding. SCE has been saying no. This is the best result that SE has gotten thus far in reaching some sort of agreement to take advantage of a tiny part of the Playstation brand.
Sony is not actively trying to say this isn't a Playstation Phone. Because Sony has never said this is a Playstation Phone. Sony has in fact had very little to do with this at all. Sony Ericsson wants to try this, SCE doesn't really care to be part of it. This is the best they could eventually get out of a decade of begging and pleading. That's really all there is to it. Maybe you don't understand how the dynamics between Sony proper (not even SCE here) and Sony Ericsson work, but it's well known that they're very different companies, who are not always interested in mutual benefits.
I think all of what you say is true (although going by rumours I'm not sure if SCE's involvement is quite simply a licensing of the brand). Maybe I'm not expressing myself very well - but I'm simply saying that in terms of branding, enough 'Playstation' has been extended to this device to make it know as 'the playstation phone' and IMO, there remains enough for it to continue to be known as that going forward, whatever its official name. I think if SCE was hoping to keep this device distant from the brand, it's failed. It may well indeed be distant from SCE's own efforts - as a product it may well not be 'really' a playstation device - but I'm simply talking about brand association and whether they've succeeded or will succeed in a disassociation of the brand from this device. I doubt they have.
duckroll said:Until you can actually prove this, I call bullocks.
That's the rumour. I think it's most people's speculation that there'll be a Playstation store on this peddling one or other kind of content.
On that note, what do you think this devices Playstation app is? It's not the one being released for iOS/Android etc. - from the video we saw, it appears to be a content manager. That suggests specific content (managed under a 'Playstation' umbrella app, so people will have plenty of brand exposure as they access their games), which suggests a specific means to get that content...
Let me put it this way - IF people are playing games on this bought from a Playstation store, through a Playstation branded management app (which we have already seen), on Playstation-icon-ed controls, then Hirai is dreaming if he thinks people won't think 'Playstation' when they see this device.