The history of handhelds has been one of Nintendo dominance.
Sony managed the impressive with the PSP in having a second place success thanks to a time in which gaming boomed. The bust period came with mobile as seen by even Nintendo's massive drop in sales. Right now many of us are speculating that Nintendo will not have a natural successor to the 3DS and go some hybrid direction as need to consolidate resources behind single product. Sony decided to focus on the PS4 and ride out third party support (which is 99% Japanese) to keep the Vita alive.
Now, I love my Vita. I think it is a wonderful device with a brilliant library. Going on sales data I am obviously in a small minority in the west. I don't think there is anything that could have given the system PSP or even 3DS level of sales that would have seen Sony turn a profit.
