“Sony is launching their portable video game player this week and the Million units initially slated for the US market have reportedly already sold out. This is a very similar event to the original offering of the Apple iPod suggesting that Sony may be about to yank the crown for the hottest consumer product away from Apple and make it their own,” Rob Enderle writes for Techonlogy Pundits. “Apple currently has the hot product with over 10M iPods sold in the last two years; however the potential for a Game system like the PSP is several times that in 2005 suggesting it could eclipse the iPod as the hot product this year if Sony can execute.
MacDailyNews Note: Estimates (from the likes of Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs) for iPod units sold by Apple average about 5.75 million for this current quarter alone. Last quarter, Apple sold 4.58 million iPod units. So, while it’s perfectly correct to state that “Apple sold over 10M iPods in the last two years,” it really doesn’t explain the iPod’s explosive growth and the size of the mountain Sony must climb to eclipse Apple’s iPod. For the sake of clarity: by the end of this quarter, Apple will have sold well over 10 million iPods in 180 days.
“This last will be the problem because early reports indicate that some functions (pictures, music) are too difficult and others (movies) lack the media to make them compelling. Also Sony is clearly having production problems with only a fraction of the product on the market needed to meet demand they have had to delay the European launch of the product providing both Nintendo and Apple with much needed breathing room,” Enderle writes.
“This is a great game player, don’t buy it for features that don’t work well (music/photos), or that lack full support (movies) otherwise you are likely to be disappointed,” Endlere writes.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Washington Post: Sony’s new PSP a ‘multimedia dud’ – no competition for Apple’s iPod – March 19, 2005
Does Sony’s new PlayStation Portable (PSP) threaten Apple’s iPod? – March 14, 2005
Enderle asks : Can Sony’s PSP eclipse Apple’s iPod?
No
yes that’s all fine and good but how buoyant is the PSP in the case of a flood? Will it become a dangerous projectile in case of an earthquake? That large screen could shatter and take out your kids’ eyes in a heartbeat. Sony just doesn’t get it
This product is in a completely different (but slightly related) segment than the iPod. I bet if Sony made a beard trimmer that has a built-in radio, the media will be crying that it was the next iPod killer. Stop making comparisons when there really are none.
Without a doubt, people are going to buy this thing by the millions, but those same people already have, or will buy an Apple branded MP3 player.
The iPod doesn’t compete in this market. It is a portable music player not a gaming machine. DUH! The PSP can only store up to 1 gig of music that’s if you wanted to use the extra storage card for that purpose. But it still doesn’t compete with the iPod by any sense of the imagination.
The PSP may outsell the iPod, but that’s a meaningless statistic, since most people won’t be using it to listen to music, anymore than most people use their PS2s as their primary DVD player. See how Sony’s music store sales do compared to iTMS — that’ll be the telling statistic.
Different product. Very desireable. Very nice (I’ve tried one). I want one even though I’m not into gaming. (I’ll have to resist)
It’s not competition to the iPod any more than the latest Nokia is competition to the iPod. It’s competition to Nintendo and Gizmodo.
NEVER
Magic word “done”
fitting
I have a PSP and the video capabilities are amazing at least for the UMD movie that comes with it. If it had a hardrive it would be a better option than the iPod. I own a iPod Photo (40GB) and it is great. I havent really test the music interface but there are a handfull of programs out there that interface the PSP with a Mac and one I have allows you to sync with iLife 05′ complete with iTunes management. So who knows. 249 is a lot for a game system, but not much for a portable media center. The viewing angle is impressive on the PSP and the system is sleek in design. I have not tested the battery life but everything else seems great. By the way the games are pretty awesome. Hopefully the Nintendo DS will be the main competition for the PSP and not the iPod.
It’s stupid to compare iPod and PSP for anything other than raw product sales. Numbers are all that talks here, and it doesn’t matter much either way, PSP is a game machine, iPod is a music player. PSP will become the must-have gadget, but iPod will remain the queen of music players. Both Playstation and Playstation 2 were huge successes, PSP will be no exception, except this time, with it being portable, it competes in the portable media market due to it’s extra abilities, rather then solely the portable game market, previously dominated by the GameBoy.
Anyways, to re-affirm my statement, I don’t see why anyone is comparing the two.
The main drawback for the PSP IS SONY’s reliance on proprietary formats again. Overpriced Memory Sticks and the UMD for movies (lucky users get to pay twice for a movie if they want to play it on their PSP and DVD player at home. Unless they give it the ability to import (or export) other media files directly to or from a computer, it cannot be considered a competitor for the iPod.
I realize that iTMS is proprietary, but you have alot of other options for getting content.
The only real issue is that, even though it is a different product, most people have a finite budget for gadgets. Some money will be spent on PSPs that may have been spent on an iPod instead.
For those unfamiliar with what mike k. is talking about, <a >this link</a> will show all the answers.
Comparing the PSP to an iPod makes as much sense as comparing a boat to a car… sure, they are both transportation, and they both cost about the same amount for comparable features, but they both serve different primary functions. That these a$$clowns at the Enderle ‘group’ have any credibility just goes to show how low print journalism has sunk when they’re given any column inches!
While the PSP doesn’t compete in the same market as the iPod, it will have some effect on the iPod sales, even if it isn’t that significant of an effect. In a perfect world, consumers would be able to purchase both the PSP and an Ipod. However, many people don’t have the amount of disposable income that would allow them to spend money on both. People are going to have to choose between the PSP and the iPod.
Many parents have been buying their children iPods because that’s what the kids want. However, there is probably going to be a significant number of kids that would rather have a PSP instead. Parents can’t be picking up iPods and PSPs for all their kids, so once again a choice is going to have to be made.
I’m willing to bet that this Christmas, many people are going to be asking for a PSP instead of an iPod. So the PSP is not going to be an iPod killer, but the iPod will be affected by the some of the millions of people that choose to buy a PSP instead of an iPod because of their budget.
Will a trained monkey eclipse Rob Endrele in his mother’s affections?
What the frick does the PSP have to do with iPods!
The man has lost his mind.
mike k.
The perfect analysis!
I am very glad I wasn’t drinking when I read your post, or the fluid would have passed through my nose (I hate when that happens).
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/4822/
Just like many PS2 owners bought the system as a cheap alternative to a 400 dollar DVD player (Average cost at the time), most buyers of the PSP are buy it for games, not movies.
Most people don’t realize that you have to buy special movie discs that only play in the PSP if you want to watch movies on it and at 20 buks + a pop, I doubt it is going to be very popular.
Bottom line: Comparing iPOD to the PSP is ludicrous at best since this is one of the most classic examples of Apples and Oranges I can think of.
Enderle is such an uninformed idiot!
“Enderle: Can Sony’s PSP eclipse Apple’s iPod?”
Maybe it had a snowball’s chance, but now that Rob “Mr. Wrong” Enderle has put his own special kiss of death on it just by asking, the answer is a resounding “No.” Sony should send him a cease-and-desist forbidding him from mentioning their products ever again.
I don’t think Rod is an idiot. I’d rather refer to his as “A human being destitute of the ordinary intellectual powers, whether congenital, developmental, or accidental; commonly, a person without understanding from birth; a natural fool; a natural; an innocent.” It’s much more appropriate.
mike k. – Like M.T. MacPhee, I also LOL when I read your post. Thank God we have Rob to tell us about the performance of consumer products in extreme emergency conditions. My boss just bought a new PowerBook; I didn’t have the heart to tell her about the jagged, superheated, projectile shards of aluminum it could produce if caught directly above a gas line explosion.
Nah it’s being American that is Rob’s problem. All that political correctness, spin doctoring, banning science when it doesn’t fit politics and Orwellian newspeak (War is Peace) is too confusing. Who believes words these days, who understands them amyway, illiteracy is good, so saith The President, in deeds more than words so to speak.
As for nature, that’s where you find more oil isn’t it?
NOT everyone likes video games.
Enough said.
all these stupid articles of “will the PSP outsell blah blah” will ultimately be the death of it.
sorry sony, it’s not the new walkman.
it’s pretty, but thats about it.
I don’t know where he gets his statistics from, but in Salt Lake City I went to two different stores this morning at lunch (Circuit City and Target) and each one had 2-3 dozen of these sitting on the counter with extra sales staff in anticipation of large crowds, but they were standing around watching people walk by with disinterest. At Circuit City, they REQUIRED each customer to purchase the game Twisted Metal or they would not sell you the console. And what’s up with having WiFi built in and no web browsing? I’m not much of a game player and I already have two iPods, but the mobile movies and web browsing would have justified the purchase for me. Alas, Sony did not get any of money today. Perhaps Endrele’s statsitics came from what Sony sold to merchants, not end users…
ahhh yes.. the enormous PSP is going to outsell the iPod.. sure.. got it.. let’s see if it can sell about 1.5M units consistently each month for a year, then we’ll talk
You thought the iPod had battery problems? Welcome to the world of convergence! weeeeeee
iTunes?
Try WIndows Explorer
As MDN infers, the issue is the exponential growth in iPod sales.
As things currently stand, cumulative iPod sales [B]DOUBLE[/B] every six months. In other words, Apple will add another 10 million iPods (to the figure reported at the end of fiscal Q1) by the close of fiscal Q3 (end of June) and may well sell anywhere between 15 million and 20 million units in the second half of the calendar year meaning that there is a fair chance of Apple achieving a cumulative 35 million iPods shipped by the end of calendar 2005.
Anyone who thinks that figure is unreasonable should take into account that, since the close of the holiday season, Apple has completely revised the iPod family and improved the segmentation and price granularity to the point where there is an iPod for every pocket and requirement. In addition, one can only imagine that the utility of iTMS is likely to improve come the second anniversary of the store in late April and that those improvements are more than likely to bolster sales especially if the Moto phones are announced and act as a consumer gateway to the iPod proper.