It'd have been a good idea to give it dialing and txting capabilities. At least if it had that then you wouldn't be annoyed about having to also carry a smart-phone with you. I don't think those features would cost much if you are already including 3G.

Because of Little Big Planet Vita why i will buy a smartphone when i can play thousands of games in LBP Vita for free.

I think Sony looked at the PS3 / 360 market, and saw that core audiences of 30-something guys who buy GTA, AC, COD, FIFA, Madden in their droves every year and tried to make a handheld that targeted them. Now it wasn't a foolish plan as if they could get them on board in any significant way, then they'd have a core userbase who buy lots of software. Thing is those guys have never bought handhelds before and no one was really sure they could be convinced to buy one.

I don't think it's that they don't want a handheld though, I think it;s simply that no ones every made one that properly appeals to them, Vita included. If Sony keep plugging away at it, get the big IP's for the demographic on board (COD, AC, GTA, their first party stuff) then they might start to reap rewards, they might not. I don't think their is something inherently wrong with this strategy, I just think so far they've failed in execution (marketing, software, pricing).

The one thing I do think at least gives the Vita a chance is that I don't think Sony were expecting a gazillion sales from day one. They seem a lot more grounded since the PS3's dodgy launch and having taken 2-3 years to properly rebound that console, are going about the Vita with a long-term vision rather then hitting the panic switch. They'll no doubt be disappointed with sales thus far though, just I hope not in the way that they were after the PS3 launched.

Sony could have easily co-opted the values of mobiles and made Vita an excellent Android tablet. It's a great size for that type of usage.  Android would stop the it's not a phone apologists as well as improve PMP capabilities.  Alas, Sony is so afraid of piracy. I bet the instant Vita gets hacked to run Android(which will probably be via PS Suite) that it sells like hot cakes despite high memory costs because the hardware is a great value which is more apparent when you compare it to tablets on the market. It's HW is better than a Nexus 7 yet similarly priced.     

If Nintendo has shown anything it's that relevant and differentiated software mean you don't have co-opt those values to sell.  That only makes Sony's Vita software choices seem like more fail.  Vita needs new portable heavy hitters like 2D Mario, Mario Kart and Pokemon and MH. Sony instead relies on mostly PS3 left overs. There has been seemingly little effort in courting publishers to make portable style games for their platform.  

PS Suite had better fill the gap that is missing witht he Android app ecosystem and soon.  As far as compelling software... I don't know what to say. Sony seems to want to shoot themselves in the foot.   They never launch with great software and just accumulate it afterwards.  I don't see why they can't come out of the gate swinging when they want people to invest in new hardware.  Potential is a hard sell especially after the first few years of the PS3.  

I've said it multiple times.... even in a big thread... Vita should have been a smartphone.

Vita is going to close up shop early with a FAR smaller userbase than PSP.

Sony does not have the IPs to push its own handheld now that smartphones/tablets have risen to equality in terms of hardware and soon software. The crowd that would spend $300 on a Vita would rather buy a smartphone/tablet. Just too much overlap in the market.

Nintendo can exist and still do very well, if not less than DS line, due to their unique handheld IPs like Pokemon. Especially because they work with slightly lower hardware specs thus providing a pricepoint audiences are willing to spend for kids or as 2nd portable devices.

Had Vita been:

1) Android HIGH END smartphone (16Gb or 32GB on board with SD card expansion)
2) With ~3000mAh battery
3) Similar to Xperia Play layout with real thumbsticks
4) Utilized digital and Vita card slots

It would have sold many times more than Vita already at a higher profit margin for Sony.

Right now they are forced to sell it for $250 or $300 with a small profit (if any). As a smartphone they could ignore the wifi version all together and instead focused on a cellular (preferebly 4G) model that is subsidized by the carriers like all other phones. So they could have technically sold it for $500 (like other smartphones) and allowed the carrier to sell it on contract for $200 or less. Allowing Sony to make a hell of a lot more money on the hardware, get rid of the ridiculasly overpriced proprietary memory, and even offer it at a lower barrier of entry for their primary market. Hell, prices would of even dropped faster as 6mos later it would easily be found for $150 or less at various retailers (on contract). Additionally, to keep up with the tech curve they could then have a new "Playstation Phone" every two years. Since they are selling at high margins, the extra R&D would of made sense and people would by them routinely.

Not to mention you'd have a far larger immediate app library and game choices. Sony could of even limited app store to be more like Amazon's Kindle and forced everything through their PSN and then even made money off of all app sales.

Its simply a better choice for Sony and is exactly what MS is doing with Win8.

Finally some mention of PS Mobile. Doesn't everyone realize what it is? It is an app store! Vita is an app device, it's just a bummer that PS Mobile isn't ready yet and I think Sony was too eager to launch the Vita. It doesn't need an Android OS because of PS Mobile. They are essentially identicle markets. The programming platform is the same and it is free to develop for. Only $99 a year to sale an app, I think that is what Android and Apple charge as well or comparable.

Whenever PS Mobile launches you will be able to download a bankng app, calorie counter, calendar, calculator, crazy cat apps, whatever you app junkies download. These apps will most likely be tied to your SEN account and accessed on any PS certified device.

Sony could just make a version more phone-like, maybe with a bigger touch-screen with a part of it dedicated to emulate the controls less practical to have in a phone, and the phone version should have 100% compatibility with the portable console version games. Problem solved. Even better, thinking again about it: high-end smartphones with compatible CPU/GPU and a screen large enough could be modified to become "Vitaphones" quite easily and with little cost. And what's better, they could be sold for more than $300 more easily than how PSV can sell at $250. PSV shouldn't be discontinued, though, as there's still a big market that wants proper controls also on its portable gaming devices. The two worlds must coexist, but total games compatibility could do wonders.

I think the Vita and the Play were just stepping stones in convergence. Phones are getting bigger and bigger, they just need to cram Vita's controls into a phone. The biggest problem is software pricing. Phone users are used to getting games at like a dollar. Hell look at Sonic CD, it's 2 bucks on phones, but 10 on PSN/360. If Sony were to make Vita a phone instead of a dedicated gaming machine, no one would be able to sell games at 40 dollars. Hell I look at Square Enix games priced at 15 dollars on my phone and I don't wanna grab them as I feel they're too expensive, but I spent more than that on that same 15 dollar game on my DS. Once Sony finds a way to get users to buy games at 30-40 price ranges on a phone, then handhelds and phones can be merged.

If Microsoft was smart, they'd make a full fledged Windows Phone/XBox branded gaming tablet and phone and just sweep the rug right out from under both Nintendo and Sony who are stuck in the stone age trying to replicate the Game Boy model from 1989.

$4.99-$19.99 downloadable games, Halo, Call of Duty, Banjo-Kazooie, Madden, Street Fighter, XBLA content, etc.

Sleek design, discreet controls, runs the same OS as Windows Phones. No compromise in the phone/tablet experience, it's everything you want from a phone/tablet, similar form factor, just with some physical controls for gaming functionality. It would be a good differentiator from the iOS and Android phones and tablets too and give Windows Phone OS a tangible feature no one else has right now.

Yep, I guess you found the biggest hurdle on the road to convergence. Phone gamers are a little bit like PC gamers, ready to spend more on HW, but less on SW, but the savings on SW are taken to extreme consequences, as PC gamers are happy with savings from 20% to 50%, compared to console versions, on the newest games and look for prices at $20 or less only for budget priced older games, while phone gamers consider too high for a new game even the higher end of bargain PC games. Maybe, as I wrote, 100% cross compatibility can create some overlapping and convergence that can bring additional and welcome revenue to expensive console games, but it won't be a huge thing. Still worth trying, though, many times a big success has been build putting together many small ones. And spreading portable console HW dev costs also on gaming smartphones, that produced roughly at the same cost can be sold at a higher price, is definitely a good thing even if the SW convergence will be small.