It's certainly been rumored several times before, but Sony seems now to be genuinely considering the possibility of launching a new console-oriented phone, or PlayStation Phone.

Speaking to the Economic Times, Sony Computer Entertainment co-chief operating officer Jim Ryan hinted that a PlayStation Phone could be on the way.

"The PlayStation is a proven success and so is Sony Ericsson. Convergence with the two arms working together is definitely plausible," he said. "What has been done is finding a match between a camera and a mobile phone, and that has been done wherein the mobile phone features are not reasonably inhibited and the camera is also a reasonably competitive product. It is hugely intellectually seductive to have a console-oriented phone."

Unlike camera phones, however, where the camera is sort of an add-on onto the phone – something that doesn't provide great picture quality – the idea for a PlayStation Phone may be more rooted in the console side than in the phone. According to the report, the phone would be "superimposed on the console." Could this be the new PSP in a few years?

The idea of a gaming device combined with a phone is far from a guaranteed success (N-gage anyone?), but analysts seem to think the PlayStation brand would help a great deal with consumer adoption.

"Sony Ericsson has succeeded in selling music phones and camera phones that capitalize on its well-known Walkman music player brand and its Cyber-Shot digital camera brand," said Diptarup Chakraborti, principal analyst at research firm Gartner. "While the Cybershot and Walkman are better selling brands from the Sony fold, PlayStation almost enjoys cult status and two strong brands, SE and PS would make a strong success story for Sony."