Nobody in their right mind would say nintendo "dominated if not monoplizied" in the handheld market before this gen because the only response would be a "Duh".  It's not hard when you have virtually no competitor. 

So no, I have no idea what you were saying now haha.  No seriously.  I guess if you were trying to say that dominance carried over (which at first it didn't) then I guess that would make it not shocking, although DS didn't just automatically start off strong as it was coming off a weaker performing GBA.

really?? Do you really consider 80+ million unit sold in 3 and half, and over 16 million units sold in Japan as "weaker performing"??

The only reason DS sold more is because it's been in the market for much longer

look at the chart:

GBA: March 21, 2001 - the day DS is launched   (Gen: 3.5 years):   81 million
DS: November 21, 2004 - present (Gen: close to 6 years and counting): 130 million

Well I'm sorry but that's a blatant misinterpretation of the actual numbers.  Here's Japan sales for the GBA and DS by year:

GBA

2001- 4.54 million

2002- 3.54 million 

2003- 3.81 million

2004- 2.99 million

2005- 1.26 million-

2006- 0.41 million

2007- 0.06 million

DS

2004- 1.39 million

2005- 4.23 million

2006- 8.40 million

2007- 7.21 million

2008- 4.02 million

2009- 4.25 million

Now I know you can do easy calculating.  There was no possible way whatsoever that GBA ever ever ever ever could have sold the amount that DS did even if it was able to be on the market as long.  Hell just 2 of the years that DS was out is almost enough to outsell the GBA completely.  Only year that GBA even did better comparatively was the first which is of course GBA was out 6 months and DS was out 1 and a half.  GBA just wasn't as large as the DS was in Japan.  While DS was able to put up sales like the original GB (but in a shorter time), GBA never had a chance to hit those numbers. Even if we did a normal progression for the 2005, 2006, and 2007 years, it probably would have only sold around the 21-22 million mark.  Which is better, but it isn't DS numbers.  But may have not hit that as the system was fading quickly in the region which is probably why DS came out so quick.  As you can see it peaked in its first year. 

So no what you said was not true.  Time was not the problem that hurt GBA nor the release of the Ds.  Issue was about everything else with it in Japan, or mainly the lack of big 3rd party support which is why I included not to many large selling 3rd party software.  Only big selling 1st party was Pokemon in the region.  It just didn't have the support or mainstream appeal that the GB or DS did.  Now if DS were able to stay on the market as long as the original GB, skies are the limit.  But we are already seeing a saturation point in sales which is why we are getting the 3DS later this year or early 2011.  Of coursre even it's "saturation" points are still largely above main years for the GBA.

GBA's big market was the American one and that was one of the main reasons it took the DS so long to ake off their (really not until 2007 and start hitting even bigger numbers the next 2 years). 

what year was the DS anounced?  because I'm sure lases of DS ate into sales of the GBA after all the ds could play all the games on it.   So I'm sure many just skipped the advanced and went to the DS.  Neither of the first two years the DS is on the Market match what GBA did in it's first.  It then when down (i'm thinking the anoucment of the DS helped this drop) until it was all the DS I don't think it would have been as big as the DS is but still much bigger than it was.

EXCUSE ME?! I'll have you know, I still have the fat DS, and prefer it to the others, it's TONS more comfortable to hold, and it's retro as hell, really cool... I just don't like the stylus, it's too thin, but meh, overall, it's the best of the DS models :D