I still think people arent seeing the picture clearly.
Phones and tablets are not gonna take away the dedicated portable market. Is there anyone who would play an RPG of 40 hours on their phone? Phones are only good for very short non continuous bursts of gameplay. The controls are dire. The same goes for the Tablet. Its more of a PC replacement than a game console.
The 3DS is selling more than the DS and people are still spewing this nonsense. There is definitly an atempt at destroying the portable console market in place, but its here to stay.
Now as to the analisys of the market at the moment. The Vita clearly came out sooner than it should because it overlaped with the PSP. The PSP is still going in Japan, even though in the west it was destroyed due to piracy. Sony should have brought out a different PSP model before they went for the Vita. This also plays in place towards the price, wich would be cheaper.
Now, we are where we are. Those were the disavantages, but what are the advantages? People here are saying that Sony wont make another handheld. I dont know if thats true, but i know this: Just like the PSP can compete with the 3DS on a technical level, no doubt the Vita can do the same with the next Nintendo handheld. Sony can actually skip one generation if they want because they are that far ahead technology wise. This would no doubt give the Vita a very long and sucessful shelf life, aslong as it keeps getting supported.
