2 things.  ps4 will outsell 3DS in the end of the generation and 3DS will be lucky to sell half of what DS achieved so yeah, smartphones has done damage to the handheld market but there is still hope for it.

There's almost no stopping phones.

The 3DS is available since 55 months, so it is 1 million units per month on average. Almost every system seller is already released for that system.

The PS4 is available since 22 months, so it is over 1 million units per month on average. Dozens of system sellers will be released in 2016.

They should stop making smartphone too ,they can't compete with Apple and Samsung.
They just had to build components for Apple and other smartphone company

Well I guess that's that. I kind of figured that Sony wouldn't follow up and I guess here's the proof more or less. It's a shame since the Vita didn't deserve it but the handheld market seems to be shifting around. And if you can't supply the games that people are wiling to plunk money down for then you won't last long.

So I don't get where Sony is going with this. The handheld market is far from being unhealthy. All that is wrong with it is the lack of connectivity and non gaming apps. Niether Nintendo nor Sony are offering a mobile gaming platform with wireless capability, communication, and non gaming apps.

Sony is in an absolutely illogical spot right now. They are pushing their own OS and ecosystem on PlayStation 4, but they are pushing googles os and services on Xperia and Bravia. What the end goal is to all of this is, I honestly have no idea.

With they way they are treating Vita, it would seem they want to push their google phones over their own platform, but in doing so they are competing directly with their own OS and Services on PlayStation 4. It is obvious that Vita will fail if you bring no games to it, and you don't offer connected model that can feasibly replace smartphones for a portion of the market.

In any case I will be using my 3G Vita untill either them or Nintendo figure something out. I will never spend another dime on apple or google based products, or in thier app stores.

How many people in the NA? 350M for US and Canada. 740M for Europe.

Does that matter? The point is that Japan is clearly not the only place where the 3DS sells...

It sells in other regions, just not a lot for the market size. And definitely not enough for Nintendo to release another dedicated system. They managed to prolonge the 3DS's life by releasing several drastic revisions and re-selling to current owners.

and they will do that for the next one as well...