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In less than one month the PSP will launch in South Korea and with it will come a unique online content distribution service called PSP NESPOT. Although it was previously thought that the focus would be on the web browser, as it turns out, the focus is being put on NESPOT's capabilities as a media-rich content distribution service.
NESPOT, perhaps so titled to infer content at 'any spot', is a media distribution service available through the PSP and provider KT. The NESPOT service consists of Movies, TV, Music, Cartoon's and e-Books which appear to be updated on a regular basis. It is not clear whether you pay for specific content (likely) or pay monthly to access everything.
 Watching Movies Movie details
VOD / MOD, or Video / Movie On Demand, is a way to access streaming movies to a client (you on the PSP). VOD has been available for awhile now on digital cable boxes, but it's a first for any gaming system, let alone a portable one, to get such a feature. While NESPOT's service will most likely only interest South Korean's and those interested in SK culture, the transplantation of such a service in English speaking countries is interesting. Imagine paying a few dollars to stream a feature film to your PSP. One would expect this service to give you the ability to view the movie for up to 24 hours, thereby acting as a sort of virtual rental, though it is unclear whether NESPOT acts in this way.
Music Music details
The music portion is as you would expect. You can play audio tracks, pause, stop, repeat, play tracks randomly and a variety of other features. Atrac3 and Atrac3plus are supported and we presume that at least MP3 is as well. The PSP already has audio playing capabilities built in, so perhaps this service will allow you to either purchase individual tracks or listen to any number of tracks without owning any, similar to the current Napster service that gives you monthly access to stream any track you want.
Cartoon
A more accurate title is 'manga' or 'comic book' as this is basically just a glorified image viewer. You can progress through each comic panel by pressing a button. Once you've viewed all the panels on a page, you can progress to the next page or go back a page. In Asia where Manga and Anime are incredibly popular this service makes sense. It is doubtful that such a feature would make a splash in North American or European markets where comics are nowhere near the same level of popularity, in spite of the recent spate of Hollywood remakes, ala Spider-Man and X-Men.
e-Book
Not many details available on the e-Book service. Will you be able to own books or just rent them out for a week? Will it be scrollable text on a webpage or just images?
Broadcast
Three television providers have been announced so far - SBS, MBC and KBS.
Messenger
Although no details or screenshots were given, one of the photos alluded to a 'messenger' application that may one day be available. It is unclear whether this would be a closed NESPOT network or whether it would work with AIM/ICQ/MSN as well.
Network Utility Disc
Throughout one media video you can occasionaly see the same green plant-like 'image loading' icon that exists in the Wipeout Pure browser, leading us to believe that SCEJ has a core browser that they allow certain developers to bundle with games / services. Preferably, the browser would have been built in, allowing firmware updates to improve not only performance but also provide better standards compliance and features. Ideally, a new platform, especially one with the screen resolution of the PSP (480x272) would load up current webpages more accurately. As it stands however, many important HTML / CSS features are not available, requiring those who wish to optimize pages for viewing on the PSP to code special versions.
Separate from NESPOT is a service called PSP Club. This feature will allow you to play games online against others. The only game that was shown was 'Glorace', a 1-4 player fantasy racing game with colourful characters and environments. It is unclear whether this is a UMD based service simply allowing you to play games against others in Infrastructure mode, similar to the already available X-Link Kai, or whether you would actually be downloading a core set of gaming libraries to your Memory Stick PRO Duo and then stream the gameplay content.
NESPOT will most likely be a subscription based service, similar to digital cable and cellphone media subscription services in various countries. You will have access to a variety of frequently updated content, but none of it will be stored on your PSP. While we can only hope that similar services will be offered in North America and Europe, we're pessimistic. South Korea has an incredible broadband infrastructure as a result of government initiatives to deregulate the telecommunications market. Some statistics report that in South Korea there are 25 broadband lines per 100 people and more than 28 million internet users which is more than 62% of the population. All of this in a country which is roughly the size of Indiana.
Plans have already been announced to provide Sony's 'Connect' service on PSP's, but there has been no mention of the types of media and game content that NESPOT is offering.
All photos and screenshots courtesy of Korean site VideoGamerX.
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