Playstation certified HTC phones and tablets coming soon

Here’s something no one expected. It appears as though HTC is going to be the first smartphone and tablet manufacturer, outside Sony, to get the Playstation (PS) certification for their devices. This means HTC PS certified phones will be able to run most classic PSOne titles, the same way Sony’s very own Xperia Play did. The official announcement from HTC is expect later this year and if we’re lucky, we will may hear more about this at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

The next step for HTC

The Playstation certification program was made known at the launch of the PS Vita in Japan, about a year ago. “It expands the PlayStation experience beyond the PSP border. It is the first cross-platform endeavour,” said soon to be president and CEO of Sony Corporation, Kaz Hirai. As of this point, it’s a bit unclear if HTC will take a similar route as Sony and come up with a device with dedicated gaming buttons or will it simply be a regular phone with gaming overalls and a badge. This move by HTC will add another segment in their smartphone lineup as they already have a dedicated music phone segment from Beats Audio. This is HTC’s attempt to diversify its product portfolio by offering something for everyone.

If you take a moment and look around though, one can’t help but notice that manufacturers of Android phones are getting incredibly desperate off late and are trying every possible trick in the book, hoping that one of them clicks. We’ve seen gaming phones with a slide out joypad, 3D phones with two cameras, music phones with collaboration from big music houses and of course, not to forget the designer phones like the LG Prada and so on. But none of these phones seem to last very long in the public’s mind. There’s some noise when they are announced and then they just vanish. Why is it so hard to make a memorable phone? With HTC now being the first to jump aboard the Playstation wagon, can they right the wrongs that Sony did with their first attempt and if so would you buy one?