Why are handhelds often seen as inferior or not as important as home consoles?

[IkePoR]

thismeintiel said:

IkePoR said:

If you consider the 11th best selling console since gen 1, that released in the heart of the smartphone era "being slowly eaten alive", I'd like to see what you consider selling good.  DS is an anomaly, just like PS2.  They won't be topped, ever.  Considering the Game Boy Advance had no competition and sold 80M while the 3DS has sold 75% of that with firece competiton, I'm going to need you to present some trends or something to back up your statement.

The GBA was only out for 3 years before the DS launched, yet sold 80M units.  The 3DS has been out for 5 years (and was less than $170 for the vast majority of it) with no successor, yet it has only sold 60M units.  There's your trend.  There's no other way to look at it than mobile gaming taking a serious chunk of gamers away from handhelds.  And if the NX is truly just a handheld and it's not very cheap, I see it selling less than the 3DS.

There is viability to that trend, no doubt.  Still, I'm not truly convinced, as when the GBA released, there was no Sony or smartphone to compete with.  Also, the best selling 3DS model is the XL , the 200$ model.   If the numbers were say 40-50M, I'd concede but again, 60M with still one holiday left(a Pokemon holiday at that) it's hard for me to see this "huge chunk" you speak of.  If we consider all the obstacles the 3DS has faced, being down 20M isn't really bad, in my opinion.