Aaron ThomasA recent article from DigiTimes.com has gotten the PSP community whipped into a frenzy. The
article cites unnamed "market sources" who say that the PSP is about to undergo
a rather major makeover in the form of 8GB of NAND flash memory becoming a
standard feature on the handheld.
Gamespot has followed up on the story, finding the scenario to be plausible,
but having two factors against it. They feel that 8GB leaves the door wide open
for piracy, which judging by the frequent firmware updates, Sony is fighting on
all fronts. The second factor is that it would be very expensive to upgrade the
PSP while keeping it at $249. The Gamespot article also mentions the possibility
that the original report may contain a typo, and that the amount of flash memory
to be included will be 1 GB rather than 8GB.
My two cents? I don't see it happening. Unless Sony is dead set on taking on
the iPod and iTunes with the PSP and the Sony Connect service, this doesn't make
sense from a financial point of view. The system is hardly selling like
gangbusters, so a price drop would likely be more effective in boosting sales
than increasing the system's memory.
