Pick something that the competitor doesn't do, and focus solely on it. For example on the Vita: back touchpad, no motion sensor, better anolog sticks, two trigger buttons. Literally focus on bringing the console experience to handhelds. Not just graphically, but gameplay as well. Killzone Mercenary looks great for a handheld game, but isn't nearly as good of a shooter as KZ 2 and 3 are. Just opinion, but I don't speak for just myself...

By choosing to compete with Nintendo on it's own handheld's features (touch controls mainly) Sony has spread it's resources too thin. Pick one thing, and excell. 

Sony is too indecisive with the Vita. I still don't know what it's trying to be. Is it a console on the go? A casual downloadable handheld system? Or a AAA game device that plays media? Who knows. 

Sony can still correct these mistakes and, dare I say, compete with Nintendo's own handhelds. But not with the Vita. It just doesn't know what it is. 

*disclaimer* The Vita has some great games, and I enjoy it quite a bit. This is not a knock on the system, simply stating "what could have been". It could have had so much potential. 

Let's hope that the Vita becomes the handheld Ps3. Struggling at launch but gets better ever year with re-release of hardware and better software. Or it becomes the Ps4 and starts anew with the Psp 3/Vita 2. Whatever. 

Thoughts?

How awesome is Zelda ALBW?!?!?

What success?

The vita is doomed to irrelevancy no matter what. Just stick a fork in it. None of the things you stated will help it.

Back in the psp vs ds days, you know what made be buy a psp over a ds? One Key Game called Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. The game was so amazing that even to this day, PsP is my favorite handheld compared to the DS and really, thats what Sony needs... Not gimmicks, but a game that people care about that is not on any other platform and if you don't have games like FFVII Crisis Core exclusive to your platform, Nintendo will just destroy you with their own exclusives in the handheld department... The vita is just doomed unless something like that happens

What did the PSP do that the DS didn't?

No offense but most of that matters very little. In the case of the touch-screen, the Vita is fantastic; it's a wonderful feature for bite-sized games and it makes navigation excellent.

Why is the 3DS successful? Because Nintendo dedicates a large amount of resources toward content. Why does Sony do well with home consoles? Because they dedicate a large amount of resources toward content.

Why has the Wii U sold poorly? Why has the Vita sold poorly? Because neither one gets enough attention to establish themselves. When a console does not establish itself, third-party developers do not feel compelled to support it.

What does the Vita need? Well, let's look at what it lacks. It has very few child-accessible games. That's important in the East but in the West it's paramount. That's a key demographic for hand-held sales in North America. I've been saying for quite awhile that Sony needs to develop/co-develop several IP geared specifically toward younger audiences and see if any of them stick. Level-5's Youkai Watch would have been perfect but a game like that won't come to the Vita because Sony hasn't established that market. The new Digimon game might be a good start but it's an aging IP so we'll have to wait and see.

It also lacks social games like Animal Crossing. These are huge in Japan, which boasts many female gamers. Again, Sony needs to establish that market.

As of now, the Vita only has a niche, otaku-type market, which it simply inherited from the PSP.

I'd like to add that I hope Vita fans never become bogged down in the "it's all third-parties fault, they want the Vita to die" drivel that I see some fans fall back on, especially relative to a certain home console that's also struggling. This is Sony's responsibility. No one is obligated to develop for the Vita, no one is bound to take risks in order to establish a particular market on the Vita. The console manufacturer has to work to do that themselves. That said, Sony is doing a lot of work in Japan but the problem is that they only seem to be concentrating on the Hunter genre--yes, it's very popular, but people like variety. Variety is one of the reasons the 3DS is doing so well and the Wii U is not.

What I want to see is Sony working to bring the genres and game-types I mentioned above to the Vita, as well as more RPGs, which it's absolutely perfect for. They can make the Vita more successful, they just have to lay the ground-work.

It was marketed as a media device.  I remember when it was still failry new  everyone having a psp but using it more as an MP3 player and to watch movies on then to actually play the games (although of course they still did).  

Create games and market it for a broader audience.. aiming at the same people who own a PS3, PS4, 360, Xone, Tablet and smartphone is making it an non important device to them..

Piracy helped the PSP a lot too (not in software though), maybe make it a real Playstation Phone and just let the pirates go crazy with it.

There only hope is too assassinate the entire company of nintendo