Too early to tell about how successful or not it's going to be-
3DS got off to a bad start put seems to be doing quite well at the moment.
Smartphones are becoming very popular for mobile gaming and the base tech (like CPU/GPU and RAM) is constantly improving every year. Vita base tech cannot improve.
Vita is very appealing to quite a specific but limited demographic imo. That is to say the Sony PSP fans and kids who want it over the 3DS. Sony will need to market it to a new crowd like Nintendo did with the Wii and MS with Kinect.
Big screen console experience on the small screen but not quite as good as the current big screen console experience..... see Uncharted Vita for one example. Needs to come up with some outstanding games that make it really stand out from the crowd including the current HD consoles.
Eighth gen around the corner. Will make Vita look last gen. So much for console experience in the palm of your hands.
