That's not what I have:

You will find more statistics at Statista

Also, the experia play came out in April 2011, so it's relatively young. The trend is either bell or downward, as it is for all devices.

@3rd parties. If a game sells better on a platform with a bigger marketshare, what would motivate a publisher to risk losing exposure by releasing a game on a platform with roughly a tenth of the userbase?

It ties back to OP. The Vita needs to sell in order to foster software sales and ensure great enough exposure to the games via a larger userbase.

im not disagreeing with your number's, im simply pointing out even world wide Sony is still selling a good chunk of Handhelds per Quarter, now not Apple size right now but Sony is expecting to grow from 7.4 to 8.5 per Quarter next year! and they already have grown it from 6.4 per quarter in 2011 to 7.4 now per sales Quarter. The fact that Sony is selling that many unit's world wide per Quarter is alot better than other companies are right now against Apple.

your Quote:

:@3rd parties. If a game sells better on a platform with a bigger marketshare, what would motivate a publisher to risk losing exposure by releasing a game on a platform with roughly a tenth of the userbase?"

Like i stated, before why not release it if your investment can net you an extra 2 million + sales, when your investment to make the game may only be in the multiple thousands. Yes that not a AAA game for that kinda of cash investment, but it does not have to be when it's a mobile game for Quick pick up and play for the development cost's. Remember the PSN game " Joe danger " by what the cost's were to make the game, and how much the very small development team made back in the first week?

Joe Danger sold over 50,000 units in its first week on sale on the PlayStation Network

The team announced at the Develop Conference 2010 that they broke even on the day of release.

this was developed with a team of under : 10 Employees , now im not saying every developer will get results like that, but the fact that these playstation Mobile games may not be AAA class of games . but to make money they may not have to be and the developer may make back his money in spades for lower investment cost's.

@Joe Danger. True, but that is year 1. People just bought the systems. If the Vita's userbase ends up losing interest due to week support in general (kind of like the Wii), that threatens those kinds of business ventures.

but is that not the point?

People Have stated many times that the PSVita need's more unique games for the platform right?

this platform is not relying on just the PSVita as it's Target, it's Targeting a agnostic approach for its platform, which the PSVita is one of many instead of being the only one of the platform's with the certification.

Thus you still may ask where is the exclusives, if the game is good would it really matter if people can also play the very same game on their Tablet?

the only way to get these 30 new games is by, purchasing them for a playstation Certified hardware, even though that will or could be for Your HTC, Google Nexus 7, WikiPad etc. It still goes to the same place, money for the developer's and Sony and into your Game pool for which ever device you own now or may own in the future. Those that may not buy the PSVITA BUT PURCHASE THE SOFTWARE, still Put's money into the playstation platform for software which still goes toward support for playstation profit's. Its more of Sony looking at the sale of the software moreso than the Hardware at this point. They have no other choice at this point, Like i said Sony may not even make another dedicated Game handheld after the PSVita because the smartphones just like what happened to the DEDICATED PDA market was absorbed by the majority of PDA's into Phones. 

Yes, they need exclusives, I don't deny it. But I was saying that if the strategy doesn't work and this trend continues, no amount of exclusives will get Sony out of the ditch (like what happened with Nintendo's gamecube).

I ahve a question about PS Certified hardware. Would a game like Uncharted Golden Abyss 2 be playable on the supported smartphones? Or is there some kind of threshold that the Vita can surpass which makes games unplayable on the PS Certified hardware?

"Would a game like Uncharted Golden Abyss 2 be playable on the supported smartphones? " That is a resounding no , because ND is only making that for the PSVita, could it be made? As a Question as if the hardware is capable yes on many smartphones being made to day, yes but with reduced level's of asset's due to the PSVita having 128 MB of dedicated VRram, to put in perspective the Orig. PSP has 4 MB of Dedicated VRram, the Nintendo 3DS has 6 MB of dedicated VRram, and most uptodate smartphones Have 64MB of dedicated VRram

 yes there is a threshold and it's exactly why the PSVita is pretty d@mn expensive but on the same token it's peformance shows exactly why.

with the recent benchmark test's of the Ipad 3 the PSVita carries the same SGX543MP4 GPU as the Ipad 3 but with added enhancement's of Plus, here is the Ipad 3 result's in a benchmark test. 

We used GLBenchmark to measure the graphics performance of the new Adreno 320 graphics processor that's in the S4 Pro's system-on-chip. Here, the S4 Pro MDP/T ran away from the rest of the Android field: On Egypt Offscreen, it scored 132 frames per second, and on Pro Offscreen it scored 183 fps. We use Offscreen to measure performance because it's a truer torture test of the chip's graphics potential, without factoring in resolution constraints. By comparison, the Apple iPad scored 139 fps and 244 fps respectively. And the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity scored 74 fps and 96 fps, respectively. 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/259797/handson_with_qualcomms_snappy_snapdragon_s4_pro_tablet.html

the PSVita does not have the overhead on the OS, plus the PSVita contains 2 more  extra ARM Holding's ARM cortex A9 CPU core's over the dual core ARM Holding's A15 that is in the iPAD 3, and does not have to push the same resolution of the iPad 3, but could if Sony wanted to, but sony lowered the resolution and screen size to conserve battery power on the PSVita.

with that , many smartphones made today even the next year most likely could not keep up, in performance, now do they have too keep up with the PSVita, no, really many developer's only target with their Games and Applications for single core 1 to 1.3 GHz for their games, So the fact that many multi-core designed games are not being designed "yet" is really a good thing for Sony pushing the Playstation Mobile platform for Android, due to the fact it may push more development of games and applications to take advantage of those extra core's. Since Google, and many of the chipset's like the PSVita also are running multi-core, the same push for Higher applications using those extra core's can be  pushed there also, many of the game Engines are now taking advantage of multiple core's now in mobile space, Unity 3D and Epic's unreal spring to mind. Expensive for smaller studio's, but can be built upto down the road.

I don't know what's worse, Vita's numbers or people trying to convince other people that the numbers are not that bad.....

Ohhhhh, and mobile gaming isn't going to save Vita... That's just ridiculous...

" Ohhhhh, and mobile gaming isn't going to save Vita... That's just ridiculous "

the number's are bad, but on the same token every platform starts out somewhere, and Sony has a uphill battle and make no mistake about it, Sony has said they have had problems getting 3rd party development on board on the PSVita.

But remember the Mobile game space is not just about the Nintendo 3DS or the PSVita anymore, this time Nintendo and Sony is not facing a platform like the Nguage, they are both facing a Market product penetration of not just many more manufacturing companies all with the ability to make  their own Hardware but also there is application Game centric software that is really making a bid for more of consumer's time over that of a dedicated Game console in the handheld space, the Mobile space is not moving slowly it's moving at a much faster pace at such a fast pace today, that the dedicated HandHeld Game console in sheer number's is going to be no longer the Primary Platform for development in the handheld space with or without the PSVita, with or with out the Nintendo 3DS. The market share has shifted to Smartdevices.

Instead of exclusion of that platform Sony is including it with the PSVita, Nintendo is not.

The whole Vita situation right now really reminds me of the PS3 in 2007, from the complaints about price and "no games," to the predictions that it would drop out of the race soon.

I expect that the same thing will happen with the Vita as happened with the PS3; the games people want to play will eventually arrive, the price will drop, and it will sell.

Once the holiday season arrives, COD, Assassin's Creed, aggressive bundling, and the holiday boost will see it posting solid numbers.

They may even cut the price; they said they wouldn't, but didn't they also claim no PS3 price was incoming shortly before the drop to $299? No company wants to announce a price drop is coming because they know it will cripple their current sales.

I won't defend how poorly the Vita is doing so far, and I'm not saying it'll ever catch up to the 3DS or anything, but it's not dead, nor will it be dead by 2014 or anything like that.

People still want dedicated handhelds. For a lot of people, crappy mobile games do not interest them. Its all about the games, and thats why the 3ds is trampling the vita at the moment. I just dont see how you can think that mobile games are going to help the vita when they wont. You are just clutching at straws trying to justify the terrible vita numbers.