I am sure each and every one of those 100 apps per developer over a 2 month period is a PSP/DS quality title =P

If you say...

If you combine the sales of games released on the Apple portables, Android devices, Palm OS, Windows 7 phones and Blackberry smart-phones (for the vast majority of games) the revenue is too small to support the games with the budget of most Nintendo DS games.

Small developers making tiny games that get unusually success are doing alright on these platforms, but most larger products that are released on these platforms lose a remarkably large amount of money; and publishers are accepting these losses in the hopes that a sustainable market will emerge in the future. The core reason for this is that games seem to only sell particularly well if they're very inexpensive ($2 to $5), and most games struggle to achieve a couple hundred thousand units sold. For the market to become viable for these developers they either need to sell a couple orders of magnitude more games, or they have to maintain the same sales while selling their games for (closer to) $20 to $50.

Well, I think this actually makes some sense at the moment.  MS is doing well now but heavily centric to US and handhelds is a really tough market to enter.  The odds would surely be against MS making much headway with a dedicated device, at least initially.

With Kinect doing well I just figure MS:

• don't want to mix a successful second gen home console battle with a very tough, entry level fight
• want to use the Live link to promote Windows 7 Mobile more than they want a handheld
• have more interest in protecting their interests and standards in the growing smartphone area than the traditionally more isolated and self centric handheld area

So pushing Xbox brand via Windows 7 Mobiles makes sense.  Looking at release of 3DS and PSP2 MS would need to add serious tech investment to their plate too.

All in all, even allowing for MS resources, the handheld space just feels like a stretch for them at the moment IMHO.

MS is tired to compete on hardware after all... or should i say they not dare to risk the handheld battle...

apps =/= games

Sorry Microsoft but that GPS app is not a game :P Nor is that titty's app or lightsaber app :P

they arent risking the handheld battle, they are risking the phone battle, they just want to include xbl into it

2 million units sold, since launch...not bad at all.  Granted, this is what Iphone sees in 1 day, but I think now that M$ has the OS out, it can work with hardware makers and service providers to release killer devices.  It probably didn't help that Dell fell thru on getting that sexy beast of a device, Venue Pro, out to the market...even as I type.  I think we will see good things to come, and hopefully, more XBL titles!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20029652-75.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0