Perhaps Android not the way to go?

A lot of people have been eagerly anticipating more Android devices from Sony, particularly a tablet and the eagerly awaited rumoured Playstation Phone. With torrents of Android tablets and devices flooding the market though, I'm left wondering whether Android is still the way to go for Sony.

I'm a long time Sony fan and have always respected Sony as an innovator, never letting themselves fall into the spiral of imitation and generic products, it is the innovating spirit that birthed the Trinitron television and brought Sony out of post-war Japan into the international market.

If Sony enters the now crowded tablet market with an Android powered device, there would be almost nothing to differentiate it with its competition especially with more Android tablets expected to come in droves at CES 2011. Of course a Sony Android tablet would carry brand name prowess and superior design and build quality, but in the digital age, like I mentioned in my previous post, it is the software that matters, and all in all, the software would be fundamentally the same with only a custom skin of some description to differentiate.

If I were Sony right now, I would focus more on the OS used on the Playstation Portable or PS3, though I'm sure that they've already developed an Android tablet.

Utilising an optimised version of the Playstation OS (I don’t know the specific name of the operating system used on Playstation systems so that’s what I’m going to call it from now on) on an upcoming PSPhone, Tablet and other portable devices would serve several useful purposes.

What the XMB Interface will look like on a tablet display

Most importantly it would be exclusive, just like Apple devices and means that only Sony products will utilise the OS. This would of course maintain Sony's gradually disintegrating reputation of innovation and uniqueness and increase Sony's brand value. Also given that Sony is the builder of the Playstation OS, it would be easier for them to update and provide services relevant to consumers demands, rather than relying on Google updating their Android Platform in ways that might not match up to what Sony is wanting.

Also, very importantly it would help create a unified experience (XMB Interface) across all of Sony’s products, which like Apple, will keep consumers coming back for more and also establish a certain experience synonymous with the Sony name.

The Playstation platform is extremely popular, with millions of users worldwide, so gaining a loyal consumer base shouldn’t be a problem, particularly if the device is able to connect to Playstation Network and other Playstation devices.

A crucial thing that needs to be done though, is possibly to make the device compatible with Playstation Portable titles, if that isn’t possible then open up the Playstation Platform more widely to developers which I had suggested long ago in one of my earlier posts: http://thesonypony.blogspot.com/2010/11/thinking-what-im-thinking-apps-on.html. Given the popularity of the Playstation, third party developers will be coming in droves and in no time we will see a wealth of Apps and mini-games available on the platform.

Of course it will be quite costly, in optimising a button based OS into an intuitive touch screen interface and obviously opening up an app store and hopefully integrating PSP title compatibility (download only obviously). However this is a solution for the long term and I see incredible potential in it, rather than taking the easy short term solution of adopting Android and just being another ‘me too’ device. If Sony can do this, and nail it, then not only are they taking the right step into unifying and networking all their devices but they’ve found themselves a legitimate and capable iOS and Android competitor. And most importantly, it will be Sony exclusive.