When people started snapping up smartphones en masse back in 2007, thank Apple for that, no one could have predicted that it would be mobile gaming that would drive the ecosystem forward. Many, myself included, thought that push email, maps, and general web browsing would make the “new” product category popular enough that people would begin upgrading their feature phones, but then with the launch of Apple’s App Store things changed. It became all about the games. Google, looking to latch onto similar levels of success, has been heavily optimizing their Android platform to be more friendly to game developers. The latest version, Android 2.3 code name Gingerbread, features many under the hood improvements meant to bring their platform closer to the capabilities of iOS. This has made Sony, who have been standing by and watching their dedicated portable game console become less and less popular as people seek to simplify their life by carrying only one device with them, start a project to make a smartphone for this new generation of gamers.
Enter PlayStation Pocket, an application that’s loaded onto a device that looks exactly like the latest generation of the PSP, but it features a full mobile operating system underneath that gives you everything that you’re used to on a smartphone. It’s far too early to tell if this thing will be a success, but it’s got the guts. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8255 which features an Adreno 205 GPU, it can easily play the PlayStation Portable titles that have been on the market for several years already. They’ll look great on the 4 inch 854 x 480 pixel resolution screen and with a massive 1500 mAh battery you should be able to play Metal Gear Solid until your thumbs fall off.
Check out more images and even a few videos of this as yet to be announced dedicated gaming Android device over at IT168.