PSP 2 to be an e-reader, netbook, and games machine?

It’s been a while since we received any PSP 2 rumours here at Pocket Gamer Towers, but, like buses, when one comes along there tends to be another just behind it.

The Wall Street Journal is today reporting that "people familiar with the matter" have revealed that the next Sony portable games device will follow the lead of Apple by combining the functions of "E-book readers and netbook computers".

It’s not too surprising that the Japanese giant would be looking to introduce more non-games related functions into its next portable system. The PSP was originally marketed as both a powerful games machine and a multimedia player through its support of UMD films, after all.

The interesting (read: 'suspicious') thing about this particular rumour is the ‘netbook computer’ part. Netbooks are characterised by their smaller, slower, cheaper laptop functionality, used primarily for internet-browsing and word processing.

It's unlikely that Sony will give the PSP 2 a word processor, so it could just mean it has an internet browser, which wouldn’t be particularly groundbreaking given that the PSP has one as well.

Whatever the accuracy and validity of these rumours, it’s nice to have a bit of PSP 2 buzz back around the building.