PS3 is not 20-30% of the combined PC and mobile phone market. If Sony are to become software developers creating Android apps, why invest in the tiddly little hardware platform when those expensive resources could be spent on far larger markets?
I won't allow it because I'm not stupid and I am quite capable of understanding a stressed point. The veracity of a point is nor governed by the size nor colour of a font, and just making it bigger and bolder doesn't make it any truer.
My view is looking at the whole console business. PS3 has lost Sony billions because the hardware was lossy - it cost more to make than it sold for. Cost reduction allow this to catch up, but then price drops eat back into profitability, and mostly profit is made from a cloased platform where you control all publishing rights and gain licensing fees for anyone wanting to provide content on your platform. The moment you give up those rights, you lose the whole point to a closed console and are just providing a hardware platform. This changes what you can do. You can no longer sell hardware at an initial loss if you aren't going to be controlling the media side.
Now prior to this gen, Sony and all us armchair analysts spoke of a PlayStation network across multiple devies, mobiles, PS3, PSP and PCs, providing films, games, and music, all of which goes through Sony's portal meaning they get a cut of everything. This is the golden Goose of consumer electronics. This is what MS and Sony wanted. This is why MS approached all the console companies to get their OS on the consoles, and why Sony refused because they didn't want MS getting a cut. This is what Apple pulled off, to become insanely profitable going by their last quarter, but Sony screwed up.
What you're describing now is Sony abandoning that ambition, and instead becoming a hardware provider for someone else's OS and portal. It's like making a PC and letting MS control the OS and the media services. You'll become just another device manufacturer, competing with all the other devices manufacturers. PlayStation as an Android box would compete with Samsung's Android box, and Dell's, and GoogleBox or whatever.
What Sony really wants is their software platform, running on all their systems, tying every owner into the Sony way of life, just as Apple does Apple users. They want users buying content off SonyNet to run on their devices. Otherwise if I can buy a PSP2 or PS4 and run content bought not through Sony channels but off GoogleNet or AmazonNet, they'll be in an even worse financial position than they are now because one of their strongest pillars will be completely gone. Unless it is Sony's intention to dominate Google's OS and become the de facto content provider, it'd be fool-hardy to open the platform up this way. And if they are going to attempt to become the de facto portal for Android devices, getting a slice of all the games and music and movies bought by Android users, how are they going to achieve that?
