The entire line of Gameboy devices which were on the market from 1989-2007

Apples and oranges..... Way more people have smart phones than gaming PCs. Average PC on Steam has integrated Intel graphics.....

The market is getting smaller but not to the point of dying due to the small support it's get from Third party studios

Everyone has a PC that can play simple games, the majority of games which are on mobile. If mobile starts getting large exclusives that compete with handheld exclusives then you'd have a point, but as it is now mobile does not. So no, it is quite similar of a situation. You have open-platforms capable of simple games (for most people), and closed platforms accessible to people who want to play more complex games. 

I guess you do somewhat have a point... Dont let it happen again! Lol

Thanks!!!!!!

What's ur take on this, will the decline continue or is it normalizing?

I don't really think you can establish any sense of normalcy based on the pre DS Nintendo handhelds.  The Gameboy had an extremely long life with a late life resurgence thanks to Pokemon/Color.  The GBA on the other hand rocketed out of the gate only to be replaced by the DS early in its life.  They were also both near their sales peak at the time their successors rolled out.  It is very unlikely for the 3DS to be in a similar situation when it is replaced.

Just averaging them out doesn't make that figure "normal".  You could easily fiddle with the numbers to get other figures which could be called normal.  In the 7 fiscal years prior to the year of the DS launch, Nintendo shipped 116m handhelds.  That averages out to 16.57m per fiscal year.  Nintendo hasn't shipped that many for the last three fiscal years.  This past fiscal year wasn't even close, and it seems unlikely they'll return to those levels soon.  Their best shot is probably the first full fiscal year of their new handheld assuming the 3DS hasn't completely collapsed by then.

i'll say this. i'm not going to buy a dedicated handheld ever again.

no point. games are very much more expensive and mostly not better quality. really i'm not looking for better quality either,.. i don't want a 40 hour game on a system i only play extensivly a couple of times a year and in 15 min intervals the rest of the year. then on the flip side dedicated systems get far fewer games to choose from since the dev cost is higher and the userbase is low. that ecosystem is getting unsustainable and boring.

i'm not a huge fan of mobile but i already have the device for other things. better "free" and slightly below expectations than really expensive and way below expectations.

Only because this gen will sell less than the last, that is nothing.
Even in the home console market, we probabily have a 50% dropped, 280m ----> 140m (my prediction, but a super dropped is confirmed).

This gen will probabily be: 235m -----> 95m , another big dropped, but as i say, will happen for ALL console...

That's the real shining turd here. HD Games cost WAY MORE to produce and market. 

While its hard to ignore the above graphs, what is going to be the answer if a giant like Zynga is downsizing by a third in the meantime? There is an oversaturation of mobile developers, and there are not enough customers interested in paying money for games now (thanks to Facebook, mobile freemium content, all that shit). Apple doesn't produce content, neither does Samsung. Maybe theres your lesson.