People in this thread haven't really looked at the games on mobile devices it seems.

Oh well. Guess I'm staying with the dying breed.

They already sell them in Japan. Its weird nobody on this forum knows this....

The day any phone can emulate the 3ds with all it's functuality and be the same size as say, the iphone4 is the day that I am convinced that the time has come for phones to replace the handheld.

The awesome sales of the DS and soon 3DS is a clear message that many people disagree with "my phone can do it all" rhetoric, and don't fool yourself into thinking that it is just kids....but some of you will anyway.

To Nintendo that is the part that really matters.

Yes there are games on the phone that are quite good, but it is just a good phone game, not a complex button pushing "joystick" wagging handheld game.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wQJjPVSW2T0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQJjPVSW2T0

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/50pNU2EFN_o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50pNU2EFN_o

Another thing that hold phones back and is a major issue (apart from probably an iphone) is an Android or Windows phone can come in many variations from many different manufacturers.

This is called fragmentation and is a major headache for comapanies like EA and all developers.

That's why there is one PS3, wii etc, architecture that ensures all software runs on all. In the X360 case a simple utility can deal with the lack of a HDD.

The developers have all the extra work to do to cater for all these design formats that have significantly different hardware capabililities, something Google themselves has highlighted.

The trick is to aim for the models with the most sales but then the other manufacturers complain.

PCs may have different hardware but at least the input (keyboard and mouse) is uniform. This is not the same for some phones with touchscreens and some without with different button configurations.

Ultimately it will be the revenue made that will decide if phones do indeed replace handhelds and Apple is leading this battle thanks to it's one design that enables almost all software to run on any of their phones.

So yes, a phone can play decent games but until all these problems are sorted they will never quite compete with the handhelds and most importantly, make godd money for the developers.

Ugh, not the damn chart wars again.

Charts like this are worthless in this conversation and you're completely missing the point.  Handhelds are not about who has the most power because all that power is wasted because the game people actually want to play don't use it.

Also, I don't know who made that chart but it very much reminds me of this chart:

I love how they state that the NGP has optional 3G but the iPod doesn't have it at all while completely ignoring what most people use, the iPhone.

Does the 3ds have achievements? 

Smart phones and good data plans are way too expensive, that and I loathe playing games on them, the devices are too small.  The handheld consoles better not disappear.  I'd rather the home consoles disappear.  The gaming experiences I get from my DS and PSP are far superior to any time when I'm forced to take up a TV and sit down in one place (only good for multiplayer when everyone is on the same TV).

You only need to have wifi to download anything.