Sony will be releasing the open beta version of its PlayStation Suite SDK to content developers in April 2012 and the official version later in the year. Building on the previous closed beta release, the SDK will offer a “more streamlined content development environment for content developers,” no matter how small or big they [developers] are.
For some reason Sony thinks everyone and their mama want to make apps for PlayStation-certified devices when it emphasizes that the open beta SDK will be available free of charge. However, when the final (stable) build is released, developers will be asked to cash-in $99 every year to have their apps appear in the PlayStation Store.
As of March 7, 2012, the line-up of PlayStation-certified devices includes Xperia arc, Xperia acro, Xperia PLAY, Xperia acro HD, Xperia S, Xperia ion (still not available), as well as the Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P. As far as I know, there are more Samsung Galaxy S II units out there than all Sony devices mentioned above combined. That’s ok — Sony is still learning the mobile game — but it can’t justify the $99/year developer fee. What’s more, when we look at the current portfolio, even though the Xperia ion and Xperia S are solid devices – they are not what we would call superphone by today’s standards and I’m sure companies like HTC, Samsung, LG and even Huawei will easily outsell them…