The Time Steve Jobs Tried to Redesign the PSP

When Apple’s co-founder told Sony to ditch the disc

In our previous piece about Steve Jobs and the Sony VAIO, we explored how Jobs made a rare cross-company proposal out of deep respect. That story, first uncovered by Japanese journalist Nobuyuki Hayashi in an interview with former Sony president Kunitake Ando, revealed a surprising detail that’s far less known.

Jobs didn’t just pitch Apple-Sony collaborations on laptops. He also gave Sony unsolicited advice about a secret project still in development: Sony’s next-generation handheld console.

And what he said about it became one of the most forward-thinking suggestions Sony would receive, only to be ignored.

During one of their meetings, Ando showed Jobs a confidential prototype. Internally, it was codenamed Project ORO, a clever play on Sony’s naming system. Take one letter before each "PSP," and you get "ORO." It was Sony’s upcoming PlayStation Portable, still in development and largely unknown to the public.

At this point, Jobs was no stranger to Sony’s inner workings. His friendship with Sony president Kunitake Ando had led to several private tours of their factories, where he was given exclusive access to upcoming products. Jobs’ admiration for Sony’s design philosophy and his ability to observe their process firsthand made him one of the few outsiders who truly understood what Sony was aiming to achieve. Seeing the PSP prototype was just another instance of Jobs getting a glimpse into the future, something he would later reflect on when considering the direction his own products would take.

The version Jobs saw isn’t documented. It may have been a rough prototype, a non-functioning mockup, or an early industrial design model. But even without seeing the final form, Jobs had thoughts. And he didn’t hold back.

What we know for sure is this: Jobs told Ando that Sony should drop the disc drive.

The PSP was being built around Sony’s proprietary UMD format, a miniature optical disc meant to store games, music, and movies. But Jobs immediately saw it as a limitation. The drive would make the device bulkier, introduce moving parts, generate noise, and lock the experience into physical media, just as the world was embracing digital.

Jobs was already leading that charge. The iPod was gaining momentum, and iTunes was reshaping how people bought and consumed music. He wasn’t just advocating for a cleaner design. He was urging Sony to shift from physical formats to an all-digital future.

To Jobs, it was obvious. A portable media device should be simple, seamless, and frictionless. The UMD was the opposite.

But Sony had already committed. They had invested heavily in the format, secured partnerships, and built a catalog of movies and games to launch on disc. Internally, abandoning UMD wasn’t an option.

Five years later, Sony would revisit Jobs' advice. In 2009, they released the PSP Go, a redesigned version of the PSP that ditched the disc drive entirely. It was digital-only. Smaller, lighter, and clearly aimed at a different future.

Despite its futuristic design, the PSP Go flopped. Consumers were confused, UMD owners couldn’t transfer their libraries, retailers didn’t support it, and the infrastructure wasn’t ready. As a result, the Go quietly faded out.

In hindsight, the PSP Go was the digital-first gaming device Jobs had envisioned, free from the limitations of physical media. Sony had acted on his advice. Just too late.

Jobs wasn’t trying to compete with Sony. He admired them. He wanted them to succeed. When he told Ando to ditch the disc, it wasn’t about Apple. It was about pushing good ideas forward. And Sony, for all its innovation, wasn’t ready to let go of the physical formats it had spent decades perfecting.

The PSP was a success in its own right, but it could have been more. It could have been leaner, more future-proof, and better aligned with where the industry was headed. Jobs saw that and said it out loud. Sony eventually followed his lead, but by then, the chance to be first was already gone.

Today, the PSP Go is a cult object. It’s remembered as a commercial failure, but it was ahead of its time. Much like the advice that inspired it.

Jobs didn’t redesign the PSP himself. But he tried.

In the end, the PSP Go wasn’t just a misstep. It was a reflection of Sony’s bigger problem. For years, they were so focused on protecting the UMD and fighting piracy that they missed the digital revolution happening right before their eyes. Jobs had shown them the way, but by the time they listened, the world had already moved on.

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