Sony's PlayStation Vita Will Ship Feb. 2012 in U.S.

[weber_dubois22]

Sony has announced a Feb. 2012 launch date for the PlayStation Vita, its next-generation portable console, SCEA's chief executive said at the Web 2.0 Summit on Tuesday. Sony previously said that the PlayStation Vita would launch Dec. 17 in Asia and Japan in time for the holidays. Hundreds of people lined up in Tokyo just to get in line for the presale.

"But today, we're announcing that it will be available in North America, Latin America and Europe on Feb. 22, just four months away," said Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment of America. Sony will price the Vita at $249 for the Wi-Fi version and $299 for the Wi-Fi/3G version, Tretton said. Sony executives said previously that the Vita would miss the winter holidays for the North American market. [SOURCE]

The specs of the PlayStation Vita follow, direct from the European PlayStation blog:
PlayStation Vita
Model: PCH-1000 series
CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
GPU: SGX543MP4+
Main memory: 512MB
VRAM: 128MB
Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative) Weight Approx 279g (3G/Wi-Fi model); Approx 260g (Wi-Fi model) Screen: 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED; Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear touch pad Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras: Front camera, Rear cameraFrame rate : 120fps@320×240(QVGA), 60fps@640×480(VGA)Resolution : Up to 640×480(VGA)
Sound: Built-in stereo speakers/Built-in microphone
Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
Location: Built-in GPS (3G/Wi-Fi model only)Wi-Fi location service support
Mobile network connectivity: (3G/Wi-Fi model only)3G modem (data communication): HSDPA/HSUPA, GSM/GPRS/EDGEIEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP）
Slots/Ports: PlayStation Vita card slot; Memory card slot; SIM card slot (3G/Wi-Fi model only); Multi-use port (for USB data communication, DC IN, Audio [Stereo Out / Mono In],
Supported formats: Music－MP3 MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, MP4 (MPEG-4 AAC), WAVE (Linear PCM)Videos－MPEG-4 Simple Profile (AAC), H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High/Main/Baseline Profile(AAC)Photos－JPEG (Exif 2.2.1), TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG