I've said it multiple times.... even in a big thread... Vita should have been a smartphone.
Vita is going to close up shop early with a FAR smaller userbase than PSP.
Sony does not have the IPs to push its own handheld now that smartphones/tablets have risen to equality in terms of hardware and soon software. The crowd that would spend $300 on a Vita would rather buy a smartphone/tablet. Just too much overlap in the market.
Nintendo can exist and still do very well, if not less than DS line, due to their unique handheld IPs like Pokemon. Especially because they work with slightly lower hardware specs thus providing a pricepoint audiences are willing to spend for kids or as 2nd portable devices.
Had Vita been:
1) Android HIGH END smartphone (16Gb or 32GB on board with SD card expansion)
2) With ~3000mAh battery
3) Similar to Xperia Play layout with real thumbsticks
4) Utilized digital and Vita card slots
It would have sold many times more than Vita already at a higher profit margin for Sony.
Right now they are forced to sell it for $250 or $300 with a small profit (if any). As a smartphone they could ignore the wifi version all together and instead focused on a cellular (preferebly 4G) model that is subsidized by the carriers like all other phones. So they could have technically sold it for $500 (like other smartphones) and allowed the carrier to sell it on contract for $200 or less. Allowing Sony to make a hell of a lot more money on the hardware, get rid of the ridiculasly overpriced proprietary memory, and even offer it at a lower barrier of entry for their primary market. Hell, prices would of even dropped faster as 6mos later it would easily be found for $150 or less at various retailers (on contract). Additionally, to keep up with the tech curve they could then have a new "Playstation Phone" every two years. Since they are selling at high margins, the extra R&D would of made sense and people would by them routinely.
Not to mention you'd have a far larger immediate app library and game choices. Sony could of even limited app store to be more like Amazon's Kindle and forced everything through their PSN and then even made money off of all app sales.
Its simply a better choice for Sony and is exactly what MS is doing with Win8.
