Along with its recent announcement of an upcoming new handheld, which currently goes by the codename ‘Next Generation Portable’ (NGP), Sony also announced its PlayStation Suite – a new download store for the company’s mobile and handheld devices.

According to the Sony announcement, the PlayStation Suite will bring to its new handheld console both new as well as retro PlayStation games; and also provide games for the Android-based handsets including the forthcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia Play.

In addition, recent remarks by Sony’s boss Kaz Hirai indicate that though the company is currently focused on the Android devices, it is quite likely that the near future may witness the availability of the PlayStation Suite game downloads on the Apple iOS devices and PCs running Microsoft Windows.

Noting that Sony has “a completely open stance with carriers and handset makers,” and it is “not ruling out PlayStation Suite even on products like Sony Internet TV Powered by Google [Google TV] if adoption rate increases, or if it will help push adoption greatly,” Hirai reportedly said during a conference this month that currently the company lacks “the resources to make it compatible with everything from the start.”

However, in the opinion of UK games industry analyst Nick Gibson, the limitations that Sony may be facing - in terms of the possibility of the PlayStation Suite heading to Apple’s iOS or Microsoft Windows – are apparently “commercial (and political) barriers” rather than technical hurdles.