The simple fact of the matter is that as long as companies are making games that are worthy of selling handheld consoles, for handheld consoles, the dedicated handheld market will not die
Be miniscule in comparison to the size of the smartphone market? Sure. But that's already happening with consoles and PCs, and no-one seems to complain.
I would also imagine that once the 3G data market becomes more free, we will essentially see the death of the "smart-phone," and the introduction essentially of portable PCs with VoIP functionality. The only reason smartphones remain phones at all is because the phone companies are the ones with a death grip on mobile data access. Equally, with liberalization in the 3G data market, it would be easier for the handheld makers to converge into the system without having to compromise themselves
In short, the market will change, but not go away. People look at these situations without taking into account more than one dimension of technological change.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
