Maybe in 2002-2006 when the only way of getting a full library of quality games were through a dedicated handheld, but nowadays iOS and Android is out there giving games out for free. (And those people who emulate GBA games on their phones)

...And yet I see people arguing that for some reason "zee hardcore" need to support the Vita or else Nintendo wil have a monopoly and those are bad for everyone.

I for one am baffled at why some people still think that. 

Vita isn't going to die. It just isn't going to reach PSP levels of sales. Can the Vita run emulators like the PSP? That was a decent selling point for the PSP.

Nintendo owns hand helds. Many have tried and many have failed to compete with Nintendo in hand helds. I'd say Sony put up the best competition with the PSP and it sold really well with Europe sales still continuing decently. Game Gear was the next closest competition Nintendo had during hand helds and they put Sega to shame in sales. I had a Game Gear (it rocked while keeping it plugged in or using rechargeable batteries) but it could never reach Nintendo sales for hand helds. 

Anyways, Sony isn't selling the system for a loss to my knowledge and they are definetely making money off of memory cards.  So if they are making money but only selling 20-50k a week for most of the year..  Who cares?  If they are making money they will continue to sell it till the markets completely sinks/retailers pull back all or almost all shelf space).  At least they are making money off it and not losing millions/billions like their TV business has been doing for nearly a decade.

Ain't about that though. I'm talking about the people who claim that people should support Vita more to prevent Nintendo monopoly when clearly even under the scenario where the Vita were to go bye bye Nintendo still wouldn't have a monopoly.

Nintendo's the challenger this time round, no longer the reigning champ.

Oh talking more about smartphone and tablet gaming.  Okay, well Nintendo clearly can't have a monopoly on that if you want to group them together.  I'd still like to see the profit margins or success stories for apps/developers for Android and iOS.  I highly doubt that a smartphone game (lets take Angry Birds for an example) can make more profit than a highly successful 3DS game (say Animal Crossing) which will probably sell in the 10-15m at 34.99 per copy (a vast majority of sales).  So Angry Birds has a shitload of downloads but I'm going to assume that at least 85% of those downloads were free ad ridden copies.  So Angry Birds "sells" hundreds of millions of copies but they are mainly making money off ads they run on free versions and the copies they do sell are usually for .99.  Rovio has "sold" more copies of games than any other game can compete with but did they make that much money?  Sure they made a ton at first (compared to what they were used to) but if you search back a few weeks/months ago there were numerous articles of them laying off and closing a lot of their studios (excess studios if you ask me).  So the greatest success story for apps is actually quite a sad one if you ask me.  This is a little off topic probably but I just wanted to clarify where the best and most successful game developers reside.  They reside on dedicated hand held machines.

Vita won't be going anywhere til 2015 but what people mean by that when they only talk about the two is dedicated game devices. Something Android and IOS are not. I cant go to Gamestop and buy carts or anything with games for phones on them so they aren't dedicated gaming devices

If Vita will die Vita gamers will go to Nintendo and not to smartphones.

well nintendo is making quite a relationship with indy devs, I think its for a reason. 10 bucks says we get either a homeconsole/tablet/handheld next gen, OR we get a nintendo smartphone. Nintendo loves to take them risk, and I could see it happening

it would be more interesting than this, but the fact that people are dreaming about it shows that there would be demand for it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3KCTOkHVhA

People actually say this? When every reasonable analysis points towards a shift to phones and tablets?

The argument that iOS and Android is murdering the handheld gaming industry doesn't make sense, either. People go along with it anyway, though.

I feel as if the Vita dies, Nintendo will get little to average boost from it. Nothing that exciting.

The Vita isn't really taking much from the 3DS anyway. It's not like the market is split or anything close to that.

I think that if Sony chooses to stop producing handhelds, that Nintendo will have a slightly easier time, most notably in japan, but really it won't be that big of a deal.

I don't know that IOS and Android are really taking away from dedicated handhelds either. Think about the people that buy dedicated handhelds:

1. Young kids: They are not getting a phone, or even an ipod touch. IOS and Android don't really apply here.
2. Nintendo fans: Nintendo fans are buying dedicated handhelds, they are not going to abandon Nintendo franchises on the go for angry birds
3. Handheld gamers: There is a smaller group of people that really likes handhelds and buys them every gen. It's small, but they do exist, and I don't see them leaving
4. Japan: Japan seems to have no slowdown in terms of handheld sales, they love them, and probably always will.

The only demographic that I can think of really being lost is the older group who bought DS for brain training and whatnot, but look at GBA, a handheld that didn't have that audience: still had fantastic sales especially considering it's short lifespan.

TL;DR Nintendo essentially already has a monopoly, and iOS/Android aren't going to change that.