Gaming is gaming even if said game is just a simple block smasher. One only needs to look at the download and revenue count for games like candy crush and the naver line games to see that in both peniteration rate and title revenue, the mobile device obliterated Nintendo and Sony handhelds combined a long time ago.

If we compare raw numbers for example, as of 3rd of jan 2013 Apple had shifted 500m IOS devices, having moved 100m since July, 2012 to Jan 2013, we can then safely assume that number is now closer to 600m.

If we compare then just apple devices, with nintendo and sony handhelds, we see the following.

DS - 154.77
GB - 118.69
GBA - 81.51
3DS - 34.25

389.22m total for Nintendo

PSP - 79.85
PSV - 5.75

85.6m total for Sony

Handheld total: 474.82

So combining ALL handhelds by nintendo AND sony together, is still 25.18m less than iOS sales figures, 9 months ago.
and this is just apple devices, not including the hundreds of other android based phones available.

Don't kid yourself people, mobile took the handheld crown a long time ago, in both device sales and revenue, people just like to make excuses as to why mobile doesnt count to make themselves feel a little better.

Eh, right, I wasn't arguing anything like that. I said I don't know how/why people would care that much about mobile gaming. Great for on the go and such but for in depth gaming? has to be a tiny portion.

Describe in depth, something people play a lot? or something that has a deep and involving story line, because you will find that both types are available on both mobile and nintendo handheld alike, and both are just as popular, with the obvious advantage to mobile through sheer penitration (easilly over 1bln devices total)

The logic of this phones vs gaming devices is so flawed.

Of course a phone is gonna sell more than a gaming device.
This then creates a biased in any surveys or anything which attempt to compare the two.

It is not the number of people who game on the device, it is how much they are actually investing in the software available.

90% of 'iPhone gamers' will never pay more than .99 for a game. fact.
which creates a bad ecosystem for developers. You either have to be f2p to get your games noticed, which then forces you to use microtransactions to make any sort of income. And that is a risky strategy

No one in their right mind will take these into consideration as the only input when developing the game.

Like console accessories that are never well supported.

They will still primarily use the touch screen.

The top grossing iPhone games are all freemium. That said, the market and the expectations for gaming usage are different on phones than on dedicated handhelds. Games on phones are geared toward very short play sessions, and are much more of a side show than an actual attraction. Games on dedicated handhelds are the main attraction. Even with hundreds of millions of iOS and Android users, they're still behind handheld games in revenue. The top grossing games list on mobile are also fairly similar year round with a few changes - the same games are going to dominate - but the revenue from those top games combined for the quarter will be below Pokemon, and perhaps even Monster Hunter 4.

Bottom line, we're talking about two very different markets when talking about phone buyers vs gaming handheld buyers. Even when looking at the gaming crowd, their behaviour is very different from each other. Mobile games do not sell high and drop off, they generate moderate income over extended periods. GTA having an 800,000,000 day is like Clash of Clans doing some massive promotion and having a 4 million day, although a year from now GTA sales are long done, but Clash will still be going and still topping the market. Of course, with handhelds, the games topping the charts will change FAR more frequently, so for every Candy Crush and Clash, you're going to have dozens of different handheld games topping the charts. The vast majority of iOS/Android games will generate less than the averge piece of DS shovelware.

Buttons are not the problem. Smartphone games cater to a group of gamer, that only partially overlap with gamers on handheld consoles. Main point here is the price of games (not buttons). With 1$/€ per sale you cannot fund big budget. Yes, some games sell extraordinarily well, but that are exceptions, and you cannot plan that. the number of COD-gamers will not substantially increase on smartphones. So the revenue is smaller, hence the game-budgets are smaller for smartphones, leading to a different kind of games.

If companies can start to sell games at the Appstores for at least 20 $/€ (and I mean at sustainable numbers), then handheld consoles get into trouble.

Yes exactly. It is more of a.. for lack of a better word... 'casual' experience. Nearly all of the top selling games on the iStore are games which reuqire you to do a few menial tasks at a time, and nothing more.

Simpsons: Tapped out is a prime example of this. Load up, tap a couple things, close it down, come back an hour later.

To me, personally, i dont see this as gaming.

Actually, there are quite a lot games in top charts on iStore that are "proper" games - just look at paid apps and you'll find NBA2k14, Scribblenauts, GTA Vice City, Asphalt 8 and Flight Unlimited, to name few, near the top.

While I wouldn't say that phones/pads are handheld killers, they are hurting them, and imo, will continue to hurt them.