This post has truly impressed me.  I remember the articles from analysts and jounalists--not even fanboys--and now the arguments have changed.

Nintendo, in the case of the 3DS at least, was able to see where they were messing up and make corrections.  If only Nintendo and Sony could do this with their struggling devices (Vita/Wii U) now.

It wasn't the market. It was Sony's approach to the market. First of all, no one wanted to pay 250 to 300 dollars for a handheld. That much was proven when the 3DS had to drop its price dramatically after 6 months or so on the market in order to start moving units. Even now at $200 some would say it's still not worth it. The prices of its memory cards are still too high as well. Even after the price drop. No one should have to spend that much to be able to save their games and effectively use the system.

The Vita has provided little in the way of truly unique experiences and titles that have really been a hit with the consumers. Though I must say I'm rather shocked that Tearaway sold as little as it did considering the reviews and desire for more high quality games on the platform. The Vita needs fewer port-overs and multiplatform titles. It needs more games that you can honestly say you can only experience on Vita and those games need to be a bit more handheld friendly than some other games have been.

Marketing has also been severely lacking. People should be seeing plenty of commercials. More websites should have ads promoting the Vita and its games. Second screen functionality for the PS4 should be promoted in places other than the usual spots where people who already know this stuff hang out. Yet Sony seems content to just simply talk about the Vita not doing how they wanted it to instead of taking the real steps needed to change it.

the reason the vita isnt a success that sony wants is all sony's fault and no one else's. the memory cards are too damn expensive, they should have used sd cards for storage. sony not have all there studios making games for it from naughty dog to sms, and so on. a too high of a price tag at the start and sony sucks at marketing there handhelds and always have. also they should have created a pack with namco,capcom and square-enix to publish games outside japan for the vita and push them hard. also losing monster hunter series is the blow that has hurt the vita so far the most at least in japan. and creating a product like vita tv instead of creating content for the vita, is another mistake they have made since the launch of the system.

Nexus and Puppeteer would still sell like complete crap on Vita. Not even an original GTA could swing its current position by much. While PSP started out strong enough with GoW, Daxter and GTA, what really pushed PSP to hit 80million units was piracy which opened up a lot of Japanese titles and translations. I think just last week VC3 got translated. 

it is true to an extent the smart phones,tablets and what not hit the market no doubt about that and sony are not nintendo when it comes to games,

the price of the vita as a whole with memory was just too expensive and believe it or not the PSP was a must have item when it launched kids wanted one and girls too for media/videos and stuff i'm pretty sure phones have killed all that off but then sony made an expensive handheld so what do they expect when no one buys it

they probably need to get japan centric and work out a way of a must have for your PS4 somehow as the price comes down if they are not going to make games for it

Not sure, but NiKKoM sounds like he's being sarcastic.

In the event that he's not both of you're wrong. I don't know a single gamer who doesn't have a smartphone and who doesn't play smartphone games to casually pass his time.

Sony's excuse doesn't add up as 3DS is killing in sales. The fact is nobody wanted a PS3 in their pocket with a touch screen gimmick. I bought a Vita and sold it because whenever I walked around with it, people kept saying "where's that smell coming from?"

This post has been moderated by axumblade 

The two big problems with the vita for me are the lack of BC (or a UMD drive) as well as the mem cards.

I don't think so. Sure the mobile market may have effected the dedicated gaming handheld market, maybe. But the 3DS continues to prove that there is, indeed, a market for a dedicated gmaing hendheld, Sony just needs to figure out how to appeal to that. They definitely need a lot more software support. The memory card prices certainly doesn't help.

Your totally right to say they have no idea what position they're in when they make statments like this. I have also seen comments from Kaz Hirai and others at Sony saying that the 3DS wasnt in competition with the Vita. Now, some people might think that meant Sony thought the Vita would out sell the 3DS, however if you read the comment closer it actually meant they thought the Vita wasn't in competition at all with 3DS for the same handheld gaming market. I recongize the two systems go for silmialy different audenices, but its still the same market and I guess Sony didn't see it that way. Also I'm trying to find the a source for this, but youtube is acting up and I will get the video with the link to the article if anyone asks for it.   

There are three things wrong with the Vita

1) Price
2) Lack of games
3) Lack of Minecraft