Since the 16-bit wars, specs for home consoles have been a huge factor in the PR wars fought between console manufacturers, and specs have sold more than their fair share of consoles over the years.
With handhelds it's an apples to oranges thing. First of all it's an entirely different audience that traditionally skews younger than consoles. Second of all is price... every single generation the cheapest handheld has won, bar none. GB was the least powerful compared to the Lynx and Game Gear, but those handhelds cost nearly double what the GB did. Oh, and they ate batteries like a fat chick at a buffet.
GBA beat, well, er, the Game Boy because it didn't really have any competition (aside from the short lived Neo Geo Pocket Color). And the DS was much less powerful than the PSP, but the PSP was double the price, and we all know how that turned out.
Now here we are again with the 3DS and Vita, both of which started out expensive and sputtered in sales, but the 3DS has since come down $100 in price (down to just $129 for the 2DS) compared to the still $250 Vita. Oh, and the 3DS has a ton of games, as do all of Nintendo's handhelds. That always helps.
On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.
