Report: Sony Blocking the PSP Phone

We’re used to hearing about lawsuits where one company is suing another because it didn’t ask permission before using a brand. Companies refusing to let other companies use its brands is as old as the hills, too. What we’re not used to hearing is a company blocking itself from using its own brand, which is exactly what Sony has done. The company has reportedly blocked its Sony Ericsson branch from using the PSP brand on a mobile phone.

Sony has always been one for associating its line of cell phones with its other successful products. It’s got the Walkman line for the phones that are optimized for playing music and the Cybershot line for the phones that come packed with a high quality digital camera so it was only natural that the company would want to release a gaming phone based around the PSP brand.

A couple of years back, (Summer of 2007), Sony Ericsson said it was working on a PSP phone, however there was no release date or even a ballpark time of when we could expect to see the actual device. Over time, people sort of forgot about it. Sony Ericsson was doing all sorts with their other lines and the PSP idea kind of faded away.

Unfortunately, it looks like it’s finally time to put the nail in the PSP phone coffin. MobileToday reports that a Sony Ericsson spokeswoman said that the company wasn't ready to lend the prestigious brand to a phone just yet.

‘In the past, we have been keen that our product proposition lives up to brand promise, and we feel at the moment the technical specs are not high enough to put such a prestigious brand on a phone.’

Ouch.

Check out the full story here.