@Alby: Actually UMD was never meant to be anything other than a proprietary format, so in that sense it wasn't a failure in similar fashion with HD-DVD for example. UMD is supposed to have originated from BD developement, so it necessarily doesn't have much R&D costs behind it, which doesn't make it even a financial failure. I have no idea did Sony have any future plans for it, but if they had ones, nothing is really lost in that sense. PSP may have caused only a minor setback (perhaps major at tops).
@Kyros: The SD slots primary function is to serve as a strorage for DSiWare games (this is what Nintendo makes money with). Basically the "play your own music" has the same idea as it has with Wiis same function; it didn't create additional cost, so it's a function that you can have.
The build-in media functions in DSi are due to removal of the GBA slot, when you can't use any of the peripherals that use the slot (such as web browser and the music/video player) and basically you have to offer the functions, since they were available in the two previous DS models.
Or can you give a logical reason why Nintendo would want to duplicate its competition, when Nintendo has outsold it by more than 2:1 so far? It would be like Nintendo wanting to duplicate PS3 with Wii, having a BD player in it, with a pricetag of 600+. If Nintendo would have wanted to replicate PSP, DSL would have been a multifunctional device.
Look, there's a big difference between when you actually design the product as a multifunctional device and adding functions later on to a successful product in order to get additional sales. With the camera and DSiWare, you could also consider DSi being a completely new, online-only, platform with backwards compatibility to DS, when it would have been designed as a multifunctional device right from the beginning.
About the dying single use devices, considering that most of the devices sold overall are single use devices, i'm having hard time seeing how they are dying. Multifunctional devices can't really compete single use devices due to the added cost of extra features, since people buy the product for a certain use anyway. Only way to have multiple functions in competetive fashion is to add functions that doesn't increase the cost of the product. For example DVD players can play CD:s too, where the CD function can be put into the player without extra cost. Wii has backwards compatibility because it didn't add to costs. Digital still cameras can film video, because it doesn't increase the price in retail.
Ei Kiinasti.
Eikä Japanisti.
Vaan pannaan jalalla koreasti.
Nintendo games sell only on Nintendo system.
