akuseru said:
alright, we all have our different opinions. I would however, never think of handhelds and home consoles as being in the same market.. imo it's an unfair comparison. it is highly unlikely to see a family with 3 kids having 3 PS2s connected to their television set, but you could easily picture the same 3 kids with their own DS while on family vacation. if you can't see this as anything other then anecdotal, then I have nothing more to say =) i see this as obvious. or let's say guys living together in the college dorms or in an apartment. they are more likely to share home console. you read it on forums all the time: "I have a X360/PS3/Wii on my dorm, so I don't need to buy one for myself". however, how often do you see: "i'm living together with a guy that has a DS so I don't need to buy one for myself"? IMO two similar devices, but still operating in VERY different markets. handhelds are not considered as direct competitors to home consoles for a reason. why don't people talk about the DS or PSP when talking about X360/PS3/Wii?? because they're not relevant in the home console picture. therefore I believe without a doubt that the handheld market and home console market should be considered as two separate markets. for instance, even though a bit different, i do not consider cell phones and regular phones being in the same market. still they deliver the same services and cater to people who want a phone. or what about laptops vs stationaries? same market? NO IMO! |
Sure, it is rarer that there is several PS2's in the family but some families did buy several PS2's for different rooms in the house. And PS2 also has high failure rate, probably much higher than DS. And many families only buy portable gaming devices and no home consoles. Both are in the same market because handheld console sales has an effect to home console sales. If handheld consoles sell a lot it will definitely hurt home console sales.
You don't consider cell phones and regular phones being in the same market? Considering that cell phones are pretty much destroying regular phone sales, I would consider them to be in the same market. Here in Finland, many companies only have cell phones and no regular phones and most families don't have any regular phones (all families I know don't have regular phone). Regular phone sales are pretty much dead here (most stores don't even sell them) so cell phones and regular phones are definitely in the same market. If they would be different markets then they couldn't have any on each other. And laptops and stationaries in the same market too.