Sony PSP

The PSP (Play Station Portable) is Sony's mobile gaming platform. With Nintendo alone dominating the mobile gaming front, Sony decided to attempt to get in on it themselves with their own take on the platform.

Announced at E3 2003, the orignal PSP was supposedly the most powerful mobile gameing platform to date (2003). It was set to compete with the newly announced Nintendo DS with a larger screen, more powerful processor, and optical disk formats. It was released on March 24, 2005, 4 months after Nintendo's DS.

Hardware The original PSP (PSP 1000) was one of the most powerfull mobile gaming device when it was released. It contained an R4000-based CPU clocked in at around 333MHz. It had 32 MB of RAM but contained no build in storage for games relying instead upon a Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick PRO Duo which were expandable up to 128 GB. The PSP had a 4.3 inch display with a resolution of 480 x 272. The units overall weight came in at around 9.9 oz (just over half a pound).

The PSP had a built in 802.11b Wi-Fi card for connections to wireless routers; it did not have the option for a 3G or 4G antenna. The PSP's internet capabilities ranged from simple web browsing, downloading music, to playing games online. Sony also included their PlayStation Network for even more online gaming and social features.

The PSP is the first mobile gaming platform to use optical disks as its gaming and media medium. The UMD, or Universal Media Disc, is a small optical disk placed in a plastic cartridge for placing in the PSP unit. Using disks alowed for large games, full length movies, and other multimedia to be stored onto fewer mediums.

Successors The PSP had multiple successors to its short reign alongside the Nintendo DS. The first of these successors was the PSP-2000, also known as the PSP Slim. Then came the PSP 3000 which had a few more features including a new screen. The last of the PSP line to be released was the mobile version known as the PSP Go which dropped optical disks in favor of downloadable only content. After the PSP Go the PSP line came to a close with the Decemember 2011 release of the Playstation Vita which offers vast improvements over the PSP systems.

Worldwide Success Having the Playstation name behind it along with more processing power and graphical capabilities than the Nintendo DS, the Playatation Portable lineup has been widely successful. In fact, as of last year (Q4 2011), over 17 million PSPs have been sold in the United States as well as over 71 million world wide. These numbers are impressive but, due to its higher price tag and less casual game titles, it has just just under half of the Nintendo DS's Over 150 million.

Sources

http://playstationportable.wikia.com/wiki/PSP_Wiki

http://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/918340-playstation-portable/wiki

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2011/08/nintendo_ds_sales_figures_make_wiis_look_tiny