We were minding our own business in a restaurant on Thursday night… when I decided to stop minding my own business. To the left of us sat a small family, including a young boy with a shiny new PSP in his hands. His eyes were glued to the screen – which isn't hard to do, considering the screen his half the size of the average human face. I started thinking: is the PSP for me?
Lockergnomie Leonard Kloft wrote this as a response to Matt's recent PSP article:

The Achilles heel of the PSP is it's Proprietary Storage. UMD sounds wonderful, but is Read-Only.
To view movies, buy a disc – no ability to transfer my legit DVD/VHS movies to the player. I spent the money once – not interested to contribute a second time. If I want to store my own Photo or Video on UMD – not possible.
Wait you say, use the Memory Stick. Proprietary – my Canon and Nikon cameras don't use memory stick. My songs are on CF and SD. Transfer your movies to Memory Stick – anyone priced a 1GB of Memory Stick recently?
Wireless connectivity only for Head-to-Head game playing. No Wi-Fi browser, No Wi-Fi e-mail. No download of files by Wi-Fi – must connect via cable. If I am on the go, computer and cable may not be available.
PSP has beautiful screen but don't take it outside – reflectivity will obliterate.
Hype, Hype, Hype is the mantra in the press and on the Tech Shows. Usability is the issue.
To make the PSP usable:

• Mini HardDrive (yes more battery drain, but usable storage).
• UMD read-write (yes this may crimp Sony profits initially, but it will expand the base of users).
• SD/CF/xD memory – dump the memory stick and digital camera users will use PSP to preview their shots. (Wow more users to expand sales).
• Real Wi-Fi with browsers, e-mail.
• Pop a microphone and jack onto the PSP and the device adds new experiences for game playinhg, Internet communications.

Intriguing device that has the potential with a few different product features to be an iPod-killer, MP3 player-killer, PDA-killer, Video player-killer.
Alas, Sony in its desire to restrict its market share (see Atrac format) has gutted the PSP of many useable features.
PSP hit the shelves on 24-March, but did not fly of the shelves. In Southwest Ohio, store counts showed less than 25% of available units were sold (as of 6:30 p.m. on 24-March).

Ah, that's why I didn't want to get the PSP – or any other Sony Consumer Electronics device. Thanks for the reminder, Len!