PSP's has had a rocky life - tanking in some areas (PSPgo) and storming in others (Japan) - but Sony isn't fazed. SCE UK has told MCV of Sony's plan to "reinvent the whole PSP model" for a future push in the handheld market.

"I think in handheld over all the industry is at a bit of a tipping point," SCE UK's sales director Mark Howsen told MCV. "We're seeing a trend whereby consumers are relatively accepting of the fact that they have to buy high-price hardware but at the same time they expect to pay very little, or sometimes even nothing at all, for software," he added, touting "new business models" (i.e. digital distribution, we assume) and piracy as key reasons for this shift.

"To reinvent the whole PSP model wee need to look at handheld in a very different way, in the context in which consumers are now viewing it," said Howsen.

"We're trying to reengage consumers with PSP, though that's not just a challenge for us - it's a challenge for the whole handheld sector. We are at the point of a major shift in the way that consumers are engaging with the current players in that market."

A touch screen-enabled PSP 2 is rumoured for an E3 revealing, although Howsen apparently dodged all questions on that.

Lack of good games is possibly an issue but I would have thought price is a big factor. The iPhone has probably taken a huge chunk of the mobile games market.

Price is an enormous factor, but then it was long before the iPhone showed up, and if there were more games worth playing people would make an attempt at sustaining their purchases, which just isn't happening now (it seems).

iPhone app game developers sell the game really cheaply and sell huge volumes. Apple take their 30% on each sale. I wonder what the deal is with Sony. Probably a fixed fee per game, which means that cheap is not an option.

Time to change the business models if it's a problem then...

Agreed but how many companies as large as Sony do that? it would mean major changes and some how I doubt that they are willing to try it.