How does Nintendo dominate the handheld market?

[Final-Fan]

FreeTalkLive said:
No one ever made a serious attempt at a handheld except for Nintendo until the PSP came along. However, the DS has so many more game features (splint screens, touch screen, smaller, mic, multi-play from one game) and a wider selection of games types and costs. I'm playing less for many DS games than I paid for GBA and even GB games. It's funny, consoles game prices have gone up, but not so for the DS where many games retail for $20 or less.

Actually, there have been several "serious attempts" before the PSP. The PSP has simply been the most successful. In particular the Sega Game Gear was far and away the most successful Nintendo competitor before the PSP. It got to 10 million. Do you know why it failed? Battery life. In the days before rechargeable internal batteries were practical for handheld gaming devices, the only power source was AA batteries. (Rechargeable battery packs were available, as peripherals.) The Game Gear's beautiful backlit color screen burned through six AA batteries in as little as six hours! The Game Boy's ugly-ass greenscreen lasted much longer and only took four at a time. (Later models used only two and improved the screen.)

To be sure, games are important, but the Game Gear did have games. But good games and superior graphics weren't enough to overcome the fact that it burned through batteries at twice the pace (or more?) of Nintendo's beloved brick. Maybe if one of Nintendo's challengers in those days had realized what a DISadvantage superior technology in handhelds became when battery life is considered, there would have been much stronger competition in the handheld arena before now.