Shops were opened after the stroke of midnight this morning to satisfy the latest consumer craze - only this time the pretext was not a new Harry Potter book but the UK launch of Sony's PlayStation Portable, the most iconic consumer product since the iPod music player.
Sony expects to sell at least a million hand-held PSPs in the UK by Christmas which, at £179 a time, will by itself give a mild fillip to the sagging retail sales figures. The PSP is a masterpiece of micro-miniaturisation, enabling users not only to enjoy computer games, but also to play music, watch films or browse the internet through a wireless connection. It marks the latest stage in a cultural revolution that has seen entertainment migrate from outside (cinemas and concerts) into the home (TV sets and music players) and now on to people themselves as they move around. A typical PSP buyer might already have an iPod, a mobile phone and a watch and will now add a fourth device, at least temporarily.
The battle of the hand-helds has reached a decisive stage. Apple and Motorola (the largest mobile phone company after Nokia) are about to launch a phone with many of the characteristics of an iPod. This may persuade users to have one rather than two devices. But other mobile manufacturers are not sitting still. Most of the new generation of "smart" phones will store and play music, though not with the storage and quality demanded by the iPod generation. Later this year Nokia launches a phone with enough music storage to provide serious competition for the iPod.
Meanwhile, the success of the PSP will partly depend on whether users carry it around during the day and use it as their main source of music. Curiously, while it sports an array of facilities, the PSP does not have a phone (maybe to avoid treading on the heels of Sony's associated phone company, Sony-Ericsson). But the search for a single device that will squeeze out all the others may prove illusory. After all, nearly all phones have clocks yet the vast majority of people still keep their watches. Some old technologies are simply too difficult to dislodge.
