Don't forget these:

Its called an iPod touch. Apple has sold about ~40 million of these in the past 2-3 years. They have all the functionality of the iPhone in terms of gaming. A parent may be more apt to buy one of these, and get the other features (music playing, web browsing) than a phone due to contracts. There are no contracts with these devices, and they still have the $0.99-$9.99 games which I've seen that some parents are turning to as the price of DS games are just too high.

The cost of a new iPod Touch is less than a Nintendo DSiXL at stores.

That may be how Apple wins over those 5-15 year olds. After all, how many kids have you seen in the past 5 years with MP3 players? What happens when they move on up to an Android-based iPod knock-off player with games? I'd venture to say there is a bigger market for MP3 players that a low-end Android device could handle than there are for dedicated handheld gaming devices in the US.

@Nordlead: Is that a new haircut? It sure makes you look younger.

I believe you get a phone that you can browse the internet for the 50. If not 50, below 100 anyway and you don't need to take a contract. Though, i don't know how it works in the US.

Damn I hope Sony make a PSPhone with Android now... Damn you guys!

yea, I forgot about the iPod Touch, as I don't listen to a lot of mp3's myself other than on my PC. Again, yea Apple may chew into their market a bit, but I think the market is big enough for both with the differentiation. People who primarily want music will get a iPod, people who primarily want games will get a Nintendo handheld. Nintendo is continuing the differentiation with the 3DS. As for kids with a iPod, shockingly I see very few with the except the loners in the mall. However, on a college campus it seems like everyone has some form of mp3 player.

@bdbdbd

yea, it's amazing what shaving and an excited look will do for your age. You should try it some time

As for phone prices. I haven't priced anything in a while, but the iPhone plan was ~100/month, and the cheapest talk only plan for my phone is ~50. I think I can get unlimited data on my phone for another ~30/month, which would still even out with my phone plan and a DS. As for contracts, yea, you don't have to have one, but the companies will strong arm you into it. Especially if you want a discount on the phone. Most people don't even know they don't have to have a contract as it has been beat into their minds that they must have a contract.

nordlead said: yea, I forgot about the iPod Touch, as I don't listen to a lot of mp3's myself other than on my PC. Again, yea Apple may chew into their market a bit, but I think the market is big enough for both with the differentiation. People who primarily want music will get a iPod, people who primarily want games will get a Nintendo handheld. Nintendo is continuing the differentiation with the 3DS. As for kids with a iPod, shockingly I see very few with the except the loners in the mall. However, on a college campus it seems like everyone has some form of mp3 player. @bdbdbd yea, it's amazing what shaving and an excited look will do for your age. You should try it some time As for phone prices. I haven't priced anything in a while, but the iPhone plan was ~100/month, and the cheapest talk only plan for my phone is ~50. I think I can get unlimited data on my phone for another ~30/month, which would still even out with my phone plan and a DS. As for contracts, yea, you don't have to have one, but the companies will strong arm you into it. Especially if you want a discount on the phone. Most people don't even know they don't have to have a contract as it has been beat into their minds that they must have a contract.

I know its not an iPhone (since Apple uses horrendous AT&T exclusively in the US), but my Android plan with data/text for my fiancee is $10/mo with unlimited text/web....That makes for a very cheap gaming device. And she DOES game on it.

@Nordlead: That was the funniest thing i have read in a while.

How long the contracts are? First i thought you were talking about 100$ + a monthly contract, but obviously that was the price of the monthly payment?

The unlimited data is pretty expensive. My 512 kbps unlimited data is 14,90€ a month (cheapest unlimited data on my operator) and a competing operator sells 384 kbps for 9,90€ a month.
For 29,90€ a month i could get a 2Mbps connection with unlimited transfer.

no what i just pointed out was other companies make thing's for Nintendo, that Nintendo does not have to make!

but what it does show is why make such a device?

their must be some demand...right?

the point is we do not know how many were sold, but we know there was more than 2 type's of these made and they were not the only adapter's made. an many of these were non game related. and most were released only in japan or in other area's in asia.

the big point is even though Nintendo make's some fantastic handheld's the demand for more function's included for the handheld is there, and

the thing is Nintendo will still be trucking along but the dedicated handheld market now is getting a whole lot bigger, but on the same token Nintendo will pretty much be the one in the dedicated handheld game space with a large share of the market but by no mean's the largest because just like the dedicated PDA the smart phone is gaining ground even on the dedicated gaming handheld space. it's mainly about the developer's change in the platform choice outside of first party. the smartphone's market can no longer be ignored as a viable game platform.

i would say it's most likely going to happen now because of this:

statement-

“We took a very sophisticated PlayStation middleware and shrunk it to fit the Android OS,” says Arriola.

I think it's going to pretty much happen based on info being told by statement's by not only Sony but the New york Time's, wired and other's.

and i like the Android OS it's a great OS in my opinion. Google hit a home run with it.

  This is why I think the future of gaming is the apple side of things and not Android.  There is the iphone starter kit (the ipod touch) which is more or less the same as the iphone minus the calls.  Then theres the iphone and now theres the ipad which can easily be ported to if you've already made an iphone game.  This gets you in at all price points and avoids the contract and phone bill problems that keep those 13 and under out of the high end phone market.

    There is also a big weakness to Android, it has no real central phone or platform or spec.  This means that if you develop a game for the Droid there is no guarantee it will work on the upcoming phones from Sony or with older phones like the G1.  Developers can patch the games and programs for now because there aren't that many programs and there aren't that many platforms but as both programs they have to support and android platforms grow exponentially the way there are no standards will become more and more of a problem.

   This huge discrepancy between phones, especially in terms of power, is part of why iphone and ipod touch games (and especially ipad games) look loads better then Android titles.  Nova, Need for Speed Shift, Street Fighter 4 and Real Racing HD look amazing.  Android games tend to not look as good and lag pretty badly especially if you don't have the exact phone the game was designed for.  

   The ipod touch/iphone platform will really be the next big thing I'm reasonably sure especially once gamecenter gets going and Apple pushes the gaming platform thing harder.  There is a HUGE billboard in Vegas across from the Wynn where I was staying last time I went a month ago and it non stop has this Apple commercial of great looking games in a montage and the games look at least as good as anything on the PS2 much less PSP (with the exception of a few late titles like God of War 2).  

   Right now the ipod touch+iphone platform sold over 75 million devices by January of this year and should be over 100 million by midyear even without counting ipad sales.  It's not impossible for the iphone platform to overtake the DS in total sales by the end of the year by hitting 150 million first.  The platform went from 50 million in Sept 2009 to 75 million in January so at that rate of increase (100% year over year) its not impossible to see 150 million worldwide within the realm of possibility.

   Yes not all of these are sales to gamers, but as Reggie from Nintendo used to like pointing out a lot of non gamers bought the DS too.  Anyone remember the pretty bad E3 of last year where he kept showing how mom friendly the DS was? I wouldn't be surprised if game sales on non gaming dedicated platforms weren't higher then on dedicated platforms like the PSP and DS by 2012 or 2013 at the latest.

   Alternately the android platform has sold a total of about 10 million phones (or the amount of iphones sold in a quarter) and doesn't have a non phone counterpart that shares the OS and apps like the iphone.  Until there is an android touch and some better quality hardware with more consistency I don't really see Android as the future of gaming any time soon.  It is pretty hard to break out how many people get Android just to avoid ATT (and would otherwise buy an iphone) but I have to guess its a decent share of Verizon Droid customers.  I can only hope a big V iphone comes soon.