| gentian said: Yes the PSP has legs and so does the DS. When was the last time the SECOND most succesful console was as successful as the PSP. Never in handhelds and when did it happen in home consoles? |
The Game Gear got at least 20% of the handheld market back in the early-mid 90's. It may have had more since I can't find per year sales just that over its 6 year life it sold about 20% as much as the Gameboy. Given that the GG probably sold mostly during the first 3 years while the GB sold relatively evenly it most likely had a bigger marketshare ealier.
The PSP will probably not do much better than 25% share wise. It sold almost as much as the DS its first year but not now it's being beat 3 or 4 to 1 in sales. That ratio has grown right up the PSP price drop increase. The price drop dropped the ratio to 2-3 to 1 this month but then the Gamecube's price drop saw its sales increase also for a month or two.
We'll see with time whether the PSP is now permanently selling more or if Sony merely managed to shift some of April and Junes sales to May. I'm not including the GBA in this comparison even though it is a handheld and is still selling. Since the DS and PSP launched the GBA has sold around 15 million units which is nothing to sneeze at and would drop the PSP's market share further. The only reason 20% of the market seems so much better today than in the past was that in the Game Gear's day 20% over 6 years was an unsupportable 10+ million units while if Sony manages 20% that's a profitable 30-40 million units.
