It is also unfair to compare Handheld Software to Console SW... Like I saw some do with 360 and DS in NA a while back (360 passed DS in lifetime SW sold). Many people buy handheld games for when they are travelling or just to play when they cannot get to a Console. Look in the past no Handheld has ever been a software "monster" like the DS has, and the DS cannot even sell more SW than the 360... the second place console...

Alot of Fanboys on other sites would like the Wii to be kept seperate from 360 and PS3 because its just a "toy". IMO its just because they don't like it that a console that is so inferior to theirs is kicking its arse.

You could argue it if you want but it depends on the comparison, I could also argue that you shouldn't compare the DS to the PSP, or even the 360 to the PS3 but that's just BS.

All you have to do is bare the differences in mind when comparing things, there is no need to complain about it because there is onthing wrong with comparing two pieces of gaming hardware.

The DS and PSP are clearly competeing against the consoles in some respects (particularly in Japan). 

I completely disagree with this part.  All entertainment is competing for the same money.  If money is spent on the DS, that is money that can't be spent on any other console or handheld.  One console or handheld's success hurts all others in terms of potential sales.

many many people are on their 2nd,  3rd or 4th PS2.... same went for PS1. The SNES (or N64 for that matter) back in the day would have had better numbers if they actually broke once in a while.

Right on

I often go to the game store and say "I need a new game" and I look in the DS and Wii sections then if I see nothing that interests me I browse the used Gamecube and PS2 titles. 

99% of the time I have layed the ds has been in my house so I say portable is merely a feature of the game system of choice. 

We actually had more PS2s than PSPs . If any of my family members want to buy a console we rarely share ...

I certainly don't buy the argument that portable sales must be higher than console ones. I own a Wii and a PS2; I don't own a DS or PSP. There are plenty of people who have no interest in portable gaming and prefer consoles. To wash our hands and claim "they aren't competing with one another" is merely a way of ignoring how successful the handhelds have been of late. (Perhaps because they actually have reasonable entry prices?)

I haven't read all the replies, so it might have come up:

" While the Gameboy was an evolution of the Game and Watch, it would be appropriate to describe the Gameboy as the initial disruptor since Game and Watch wasn’t as widespread outside Japan. The Gameboy fit the disruptor description well. It was definitely a crummy product for non-consumers. It was, in every way, inferior to the NES. However, it brought values to it that the NES did not have: it was portable.

“But Malstrom!” you say. “Are you saying that the Gameboy was disrupting the NES, that Nintendo was disrupting itself? Are you insane?”

The correct action for a disruptor is to follow-up previous disruption with another disruptive product to cannibalize their business. Had console gaming remained forever in the 8-bit generation, it is obvious that Gameboy would have disrupted consoles as its mobile technology improved. Instead, console gaming moved upmarket and handhelds have always been a couple of generations behind.

While competitor consoles are the obvious reason for Nintendo moving upmarket (to 16-bit, to 64-bit, and so on), the bigger problem is Gameboy cannibalizing the console market. In the future, this will become a problem for Sony with their handheld. The point is that the handheld business forced Nintendo to keep moving its console to the upmarket (or else risk it becoming gobbled up by the improving Gameboy). Nintendo’s solution was innovative: the DS turned Gameboy into a product that does not resemble a portable console for there are two screens and a touch pad (which cannot easily be put on consoles). This would later allow Nintendo to create a disruptive console without risk of its handheld equivalent eating it up."

- Disruptive Storm, by Sean Malstrom 

very unfair