The mobile phone market is nearing the point of saturation, particularly in industrialized nations. Notice that study reports mobile phones, not smartphones.

Also, a 1.7% drop (of overall market, not the market we're talking about here, which is still growing) compared to a drop of over 20%. Ell-Oh-Ell. You handheld diehards can wish and hope all you want but the market is shrinking. It was obvious it was going to happen to anyone not so blinded by dreams and desires to see handhelds succeed. Just as PC sales are down, handheld sales are down. As Google and Apple attack the television market, next on the list are consoles. Microsoft and Nintendo have a chance to hold on this generation but I don't see Sony faring nearly as well because they don't have Nintendo's quirkiness and they don't have Microsoft's convergence options to make the Xbox a true competitor to smart televisions (of course, the Xbox 720 could be full of bad ideas... we don't know yet but based on the 360, MS has a chance to stay in this and thrive).

Also, this is in the first paragraph of the article:

"In addition, fourth-quarter 2012 smartphone sales continued to drive overall sales, as Q4's 38.3 percent hike based on the same period last year reveal. Smartphone sales in Q4 2012 reached record levels of 207.7 million units."

You're the only one who has said anything in this thread about Nintendo being bought. I don't think Nintendo has anything that Apple would want to buy. Apple already has the best hardware designers in consumer electronics and has no problem attracting game developers.

Also, are we talking about handhelds, or are we just talking about Nintendo? Because while the 3DS may be outperforming the DS over certain periods of its life, that doesn't necessarily indicate growth in handhelds at all. All that's needed to understand how the 3DS could perform better than DS while the handheld market is contracting is to compare PSP and Vita performance. Nintendo is eating Sony's slice of the pie, while the pie is getting smaller.

Thanks rocketpig for taking down his mobile phone malarky.

You could have just bought a 10-20 dollar battery replacement off Amazon...  I suppose you just wanted an excuse to get a new phone.  I usually throw my phones against the wall for that.

I wanted a phone that didn't need replacement parts.I suppose if I wanted to spend my free time looking for used batteries online and going a few days with no phone once a year, then the GSII was a great phone! But who the hell wants that? It's just another prime example of why the iPhone is better. Samsung makes it easy to replace the battery, which sounds like a plus. But then they make shity batteries that actually do need replacing. Apple just makes a good battery and designs the phone to use less energy on pointless things and encases the battery so that you don't have to worry about it. I'll take the Apple way please. It just works. You can stick with the customizable phone that feels like a part time job to customize and maintain in order to fully appreciate all the options it offers. 

 It was just that your battery was defective, shit happens. Iphone batteries get worse much more quickly because they are charged much faster. It is bad for the battery.

IOS is good if you use Itunes but that is about it. It is a pain in the ass even if you want to use it as a consumption device. I have an Ipad 4 and software is so bad it hurts. When I need to change settings I need to go to quit the app, go to settings, make the adjustments and go back. Still, it should be an easy process right. Since it can't really multitask, it reloads everything when I go back. Yesterday I wrote a two page article for a website, changed the tab for something, I went back and Bam! It's gone. It reloads every webpage, everytime! Wtf is that? Apps can barely talk to each other. That is a big one. It just doesn't know what to do. They are trying to implement it Android style but it is half assed at this point.

The notification center is laughable. It is a big rip off of the Android notification shade but this is stupidly bad. I don't really care on Ipad but if I had an Iphone I'd go crazy. It is just crap. Though better than WP's implementation :p.

I can go on and on really. Music, video transfer, lack of a folder system etc. 

There are good things of course. It is really fast and as long as you stick to a single tab, it works very well. Gaming performance is also very good, though it is pointless for me. App selection, no need to mention.

I just hope that Android app selection can be as diverse as IOS for Android. I use Pro apps like Final Draft etc on my Ipad, which are sadly not available for Android tablets. 

IOS internet usage is of course higher than Android, since it includes Ipad, the market leader with a significant lead. I am mainly an Android user, but my internet usage is 80% Ipad, 20% Android since a tablet is much better than a phone. Also browsing is something Ipad is very good at. If we were looking at phones only it would be different.

Fact, almost every gamer will have to drop dead, before handhelds and consoles are replaced by cell phone gaming. What people, like you don't realise is that phones, whether smart or dumb, are a now a way of life. They are however not a way of gaming life. Therefore, people don't necessarily go out to buy a phone because they want to play the next God of War, Halo or Mario game or even the next Madden. They buy a phone because they want or need a phone. If the phone is able to play games then it’s an added bonus.

Yes phones compete for the same disposable income that people would spend on consoles or handhelds, but so does every other consumer product competes for people's disposable income. Therefore, it doesn't necessarily mean that phones and gaming devices are in direct competition with each other, to the extent that phone manufacturers (like Apple) could put gaming companies (like Nintendo) out of business.

Yeah, and you're presenting counter arguments as if to suggest Nintendo will be bought. Anyways, Apple has its hands full with Samsung, so they aint attracting no gaming anybody no time soon. A few years from now, gaming on phones will be a distant memory as you enjoy Angry Birds: Pakistan...for free!

I'm not necessarily talking about growth, but more sustainability of the handheld market by Nintendo. I really don't give a crap about the Vita, which I believe will receive the final nail in its coffin when people's gaming dollars are shifted towards PS720 later this year, and not necessarily because of cell phone sales. Yes, Nintendo is eating into Sony's handheld market share, but the pie is even smaller for Sony's handheld, not necessarily because of cell phone sales, but because Sony screwed up the Vita entirely. Meaning it's a product almost nobody wants, and not that people prefer to buy a phone rather than a Vita for gaming.

Sony simply screwed up with the Vita in terms of price, games, and competition - competition mean PSP and Consoles. For example, ACIII, why would I want to play ACIII on the Vita after spending money on an HD TV, Surround Sound System, and PS3 with better visuals and sound?

Not sure what you are talking about. I just tried it using the google search app and the Safari web browser app on my iPad and both times with two different sites(including this one) I could type up a reply, switch to another app using multi finger swiping or by pressing the home button, and both times my text was still there just the way I left it when I reopened the app I had typed it in. And Apple shut down the app to save battery life while I wasn't using it. How is that a terrible design? 

Also by putting settings for apps in the settings app allows the app to be designed so that it doesn't have to include those settings in the design of the app. Since for most people .01% of the time is spent adjusting settings, and 99.9% of the time is spend using the app for what it is intended. It allows for better design freedom. Also you don't have to go around trying to figure out where the settings are on each new app, because they are right there in the settings app. I wish apps took even more advantage of this design as it is a much more efficient design to do things. Apple doesn't do "Multi-tasking" because anytime you switch apps it shuts it down to save battery power and when you reopen it it goes right back to where you left it. That is just the same as multi-tasking, except it saves battery power and data consumption but yields the same kind of multi-tasking ability on a phone. It doesn't however have true multi-tasking as you can't see two apps/programs at one time, but on a phone that is pretty pointless anyways because the screens are too small. 

What is so bad about the notification center? It notifies you when something happens. What else do you want it to do? I did like the notification center on my SII better, but my iPhone/iPad navigate much faster that I don't even use my notification bar to navigate like I did on the SII so I don't miss it. 

iTunes is the best ecosystem for content consumption, especially if you have Apple TV and multiple Apple products that can seemlessly work together. If you are refering to pirated content, then yes Apple is terrible. And probably why poor people tend to favor Android. 

LOL at the last sentence. People like you doesn't even worth my time but I have to say this: having access to pirated apps is much, much easier on IOS. It is 5 minutes of work at best.