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ShareTOKYO: Sony Corp.'s games unit said Monday that sales of the new PlayStation Portable handheld players reached the one million mark within two months, in welcome news for the recovering Japanese company.
"The sales of the new PSP reached one million after two months of its release on September 20, 2007," Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said in a statement.
The new model -- slimmer, lighter and with new functions and colours -- is designed to appeal to a wider audience including women and had already sold half a million in Japan in two weeks after its launch on September 20.
The new model reached the one-million mark two weeks more quickly than the previous model of the PSP, which was launched in December 2004, the company said.
The fortunes contrast with the next-generation PlayStation 3 home console, which took eight months to top the one million mark in July this year.
PlayStation 3, in which Sony invested heavily to create high-end graphics, has lagged behind Nintendo's hot-selling Wii, which has proved a hit thanks to its motion-sensitive controller and affordable price.
Sony, which changed the way the world listens to music with the Walkman, has axed thousands of jobs in recent years in a restructuring drive as it competes with innovative new products like Apple's iPod and Nintendo's Wii.
