Skype on PSP Delayed in Japan
During Apple’s earnings call earlier this week, CFO Peter Oppeheimer said they believe “one of the iPod’s future directions is to become the first mainstream WiFi mobile platform.” Sony has a similar ambition for their PSP-2000 portable gaming platform. Unfortunately, they’ve hit a small snag.
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan was scheduled to begin offering eBay’s Skype VoIP phone services on the platform Thursday in Japan. Instead, delivery of that functionality has reportedly been delayed because microphones failed to meet Skype’s specification requirements.
No time line for correcting the problem is being provided.
The Skype on PSP service was officially announced by Sony in a press release on January 6th. Though the microphone issue is a small hiccup that should be remedied quickly, the manufacturing issues can be chalked up as another misstep for a company that seems to be having altogether too many product management troubles in the gaming division.
On a positive note, the troubles will not effect Western customers. Sony says a European and U.S. launch of the service will coincide with a firmware upgrade at the end of this month. Those who want to use the hand-held game platform for Skype based WiFi telephony should have no problems
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