Anyone hoping to get a last-minute surprise with Sony’s “PlayStation phone” at the Consumer Electronics show will be sorely disappointed.
CES. It’s the world’s launching pad for everything cool and noteworthy in the technology industry. But Sony seems to already have enough on its plate as it is, so it will not be showing off a PlayStation-centric mobile phone as many had hoped.
The PlayStation Phone, which will reportedly be officially named the Sony Ericsson Z1, was first leaked last year with a photo that showed an Android phone shaped like a PSPgo.
Since then, we’ve monitored details throughout the blogosphere that suggest it will run the latest version of Android, come pre-installed with a PlayStation app, and be able to play specially developed mobile games.
Given the rash of leaks over the last month, we were hoping to see an official unveiling at next month’s CES show, but now reports are coming in that Sony will hold off until February, and the Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Europe.
The phone will reportedly launch first in the UK, and we haven’t heard much scuttlebutt about it coming stateside. But given how important the US market is to both smartphones and video games, we expect it’s a question of when and not if.
There’s gonna be a lot of mobile stuff at CES, so perhaps it’s good for Sony to wait a bit and then strike gold at the much smaller trade show one month later.
The Z1 is rumored to launch in Europe in April. [[Playstation]]
