Sony announced GPS functionality for its Sony PSP gaming platform. While the GPS accessory was released in Japan in late 2006, this marks the "demo" launch (at CES) of the product in North America. It was simply a demo at CES, but Sony reps said they expect the product to ship sometime this year.

The GPS device will load map data from an included UMD that's region specific. Updated or additional country maps can be purchased and downloaded to a Memory Stick. The GPS will work with the older/original PlayStation Portable as well as the newer PSP-2000. Pretty amazing that the Sony PSP can now do gaming (obviously), Skype calls, and now GPS. The large screen should do nicely with GPS navigation, so TomTom and Garmin may need to be concerned since they are mostly one-trick GPS ponies. Though I doubt the first rev of the Sony PSP GPS software will include turn-by-turn text-to-speech naming of streets.