and by the way, let's remember there was no new 3ds in north america or europe, and everyone new it was coming in a couple months... and this was during the 3ds's worst sales year to date. that system sells.

Portables tend to sell better over the holidays, and there was a new model for Japan. I think the 3DS won it.

Don't we have any actual numbers? It's almost february.

I was solely speaking of the portion of profit from hardware. Sure there are other things we need to consider, but that doesn't mean it is any less necessary to consider the affect of hardware sales on profit. As for software profits, I think since mostly Nintendo games are the ones selling on 3DS (PS4's software sales have a huge portion of third party games which give about $10 of platform royalties per copy) and digital is still very popular on the 3DS (albeit probably less than PS4) that any other advantages can be accounted for. 

I could tell you before Sony even released the PS4, the answer to that question.  Look at how long Nintendo kept the Wii at $250, when it cost less than $100 to manufacture.  Nintendo is like Apple in that regard, and it's really done them well (I don't believe the Wii U's struggles are a pricing thing).  Even setting the PS3 aside as an extreme outlier, Sony's never been as profit aggressive as Nintendo, at least, not in the console market.  Opting instead to garner the lions share of profit from games, peripherals and more recently DLC from PSN.

So we have those numbers from VGChartz:

Week Ending December 6th PS4 648,059 3DS 503,311
Week ending December 13th
PS4 681,241
3DS 576,678
Week ending December 20th
3DS 744,657
PS4 717,582
Week ending December 27th
PS4 736,812
3DS 724,174
Week ending January 3rd:
PS4 420,708
3DS 412,496

So we have those numbers from VGChartz:

Week Ending December 6th PS4 648,059 3DS 503,311
Week ending December 13th PS4 681,241 3DS 576,678
Week ending December 20th PS4 717,582 3DS 744,657
Week ending December 27th PS4 736,812 3DS 724,174
Week ending January 3rd: PS4 420,708 3DS 412,496

Total for month of December including January 1st to 3rd: PS4 3,204,402 3DS 2,961,316
We can assume that the tracking for the PS4 is close since the numbers are really close to the numbers we got from Sony.
So the 3DS would have to be undertracked by around 250K for it to have beaten the PS4 in December.

First you should not think so much about the price.. 3DS is more old than ps4.. and when it's as late in the gen as 3DS.. i think it's sure to say that it will not be a 399$ system.

Second.. the thead IS about comparing 3DS sales to Ps4.. (yes theire are many factors to include in why it went that way.. but you cliked on a 3DS vs PS4 sales comparisons tread)

And i also find it a bit strange that you mention Movies, tv shows and music.. that has nothing to do with gaming.. and sony could had sold them elswhere

Ontopic: I think the "litle handheld that could" have silenced a lot of "gaming analytics" And the numbers this dec (just before N3DS comes to the west) are not possible to spin in any negative way.. in any way.. (daredevil i'm looking at you :)

Ps4 also did very very good.. No doubt about it..

I'm guessing the ps4 won. The 3DS is a handheld, it's hard to compare those to home consoles.

either way they both sold well. good for both of them