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It has a portable form factor, a built-in LCD screen, a portable battery, a mobile chip powering it, mobile RAM most likely being used.
It's a mobile system with a TV passthrough dock.
Sony could likely build a dock for the Vita that let it connect to the TV ... but the system is dead, so there's no point.
Besides really it's probably better that people look at it as a portable. People still like Nintendo portables/handhelds. Consoles ... not unless you have a controller gimmick that goes through the roof, and even that sank like the Titanic after a few years, really embarassing how it finished that generation. I understand for the time being (3DS, high price) that Nintendo wants it to be thought of as a console for now, but in a year or two they'll probably start to emphasize it as a portable first device that it actually is when they want more and more 3DS owners to "switch" over.
