Sony has just announced its new gaming device called the NGP aka PSP2 and it looks like they are going to take on the likes of Apple and its iOS platform.

Sony is gearing up to take on iOS with its new PlayStation Portable, Android game store. Sony will be releasing its new PlayStation Suite game store that will be available on Google’s Android mobile operating system and this is already big.

We reported earlier covering the PSP2 specs etc that features all the PlayStation goodness and more, the announcement was made at a media event in Tokyo Thursday and Engadget was there reporting the news, the device will release late 2011.

Not only is this going to be a gaming device it will also be a social connectivity haven for networkers, Converging Real and Virtual (augmented) Reality and Location-based Entertainment according to Apple Insider. This source also has great details about Sony vs. Apple that we suggest you reading, here is a quick break down.

The PSP2 main features include GPS, 3G, WiFi, 5-inch touchscreen OLED display (resolution of 960 pixels by 544 pixels), dual analog sticks, front and rear touchpads, front and rear cameras, and motion sensors and electronic compass. The bit we like is the quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU.

Sony put the gaming device into action showing titles such as Little Big Planet, Killzone, Resistance and Uncharted and the cool rear touchpad. Tim Sweeney, Epic Games founder showed off Unreal Engine 3 on the NGP and that looked awesome. So can Sony beat the likes of Apple?

Sony is going to partner up with Google Android and we know they are rivals of Apple’s iOS; two big names joining hands can only mean annoyance via Apple. More and more users of smartphones play games on their handsets so it stands to reason to have a joint venture with a mobile operating system platform.

There were rumours of Apple buying Sony last year but guess that idea fell through, According to Reuters Sony is struggling and expecting a fall in profits leaving Apple in a very good position to dominate.

Can Sony beat the likes of Apple? Please do post all your comments below.