Although rumors of a Sony PSP (Play Station Portable) hybrid have been around since 2007, Sony has only recently confirmed that it wishes to instigate a new department to look into such a proposal.

The committee may start work as early as this month. However, Sony declines to comment on the rumors, simply saying that they would indeed consider such a possibility in the natural course of brain-storming.

This level of maintaining secrecy is understandable as they would like to surprise their competitors without giving them much time to react.

Currently, Apple’s iPhone is the best hybrid available, and more than half their users purchase and download games and music off of their online downloads store ‘App Store’ which too is a money-maker.

However, the edge with Sony lies in their Play Station line of brands; which is unbeatable in their appeal to gamers and a hybrid that is a combination of a phone and a PSP is a no-brainer. Sadly, if history is any indication, the makers of the Walkman have always been slow on the uptake.

As if that’s not bad enough, iPhone jailbreakers are already breaking in PS2 games to work on the iPhone, which is an excellent market indicator of the potential of a PSP phone hybrid.

Market gurus believe that Sony has refrained from such a move possibly because they are afraid to put their Sony Play Station name on a mobile made by their partner Sony Ericsson. However, there is the Aino, which is a Sony Ericsson gaming phone that let users access Sony games using the Remote Play feature. Unfortunately, the Aino didn’t do all too well, not the least because it did not allow access to PS3 games.

Sony’s new revamped PSP, the PSP-GO! may fail to appeal to users as Sony is losing out to Nintendo’s portable consoles. Even the Play Station is lagging behind Xbox in terms of popularity. Introducing a hybrid gaming phone with the magic PS name may be Sony’s one-shot to glory to recapture the imagination of gamers who have begun to migrate to their competitors.