Sony (NYSE:SNE) Ready to Launch PlayStation Smartphone

Sony (NYSE:SNE) may launch its long-awaited PlayStation Portable smartphone in the spring of 2011, according to a report in the English edition of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

The assumption is the smartphone will be modeled on Sony's handheld PSP Go game console, made by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and use Google's Android operating system to run it.

Sony is introducing the new model in order to compete with against entrenched smartphone devices such as developed by Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) and RIM (Nasdaq:RIMM).

Because it is based on a portable game console and empowers the user to participate in advanced gaming, it may be considered a must-have device and thought of as a gaming piece with the ability to talk to someone, rather than a smartphone you can use with a gaming system.

That could differentiate the smartphone in the minds of consumers, and possibly jumpstart their ailing console business.

Sony closed Wednesday at $35.87, up $0.03, or 0.08 percent.