http://digg.com/gaming_news/Nintendo_DS_sales_hit_45_million_worldwide

Since launching in November 2004 Nintendo's record-breaking DS portable system has sold 45 million units worldwide. The sales have already surpassed that of the Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Gamecube, Xbox and many others and with around 2 million units per month currently being sold it is only a matter of time before it surpasses the GBA and PS2 also

If Nintendo keeps it alive for that long! Than it definitely has a chance of kickin PS2' ass in total hardware sales!

Otherwise (When Sony releases another handheld within the next years) It's gonna be a long shot!

I can't see Sony launching a new PSP just yet, in most territories the PSP has been released for just over 2 years, in Europe it will be 2 years in Sept, way too early to be releasing a new model already

They'll make a redesign, though there are strict limits to how much smaller they can make the system due to the technology in the screen. I don't see the redesign actually changing much. If they released a PSP2 right now that would be the end of them in handhelds. People would no longer buy their products if they feared the company dumping them in 2 years. I'm happy with my original PSP honestly.

I can't see them making the PSP much smaller at all for the redesign, but a better battery and quicker UMD drive will be first and foremost.

Anyway, this is excellent news for Nintendo.  Absolutely amazing for the DS to achieve 45 million units worldwide in 2.5 years on the market.  I can see the DS easily getting to 100 million and fighting hard with the PS2 to become the ultimate largest selling games machine in the world.

Both the PSP and the DS WILL have a long lifespan IMHO.  There is no need for either to be replaced quite yet.  They are only 2-2.5 years into their lifecycle and I reckon they could quite easily be going strongly in 5-6 years time.

Here are the possible announcement/release dates for consoles (these are not predictions but represent logical points that would make sense for a console to be announced or released)

Microsoft won't ever make a handheld.  That's not in their plans for gaming.  They entered gaming to attack Sony.  That's really the only reason.  The PSP is not a threat to their empire so they won't bother attacking it, especially with the DS continuing to outsell it 3 to 1.  Other than that, I would say that list is reasonable.

I wasn't trying to imply that they would produce a handheld ...

I was saying that if Microsoft choose to produce a handheld it would make sense for them to release it in 2008 or 2009. Microsoft is in a position now where they could combine some of the better features of both the Nintendo DS and PSP and sell it at a reasonable price; a clamshell design with a touch pad (from a notebook), analogue nub, 4 face buttons and 2 shoulder buttons, flash memory format, with more power and a better screen than the PSP with similar battery life to the DS fo $199. On top of that they would be able to release it 12 to 24 months before either Sony or Nintendo released their next system which would give them the opportunity to build a userbase.

I honestly think that Microsoft could very well attempt a handheld. I reckon there has been plans on the board for a few years now.

If Microsoft want to attack Sony....then they have to attack the handheld market seeing as Sony is losing out in the next gen market big time at the moment and the way things are going, the PSP could very well sell around 30m total worldwide within the next year.

I very much doubt that Sony or Nintendo for that fact will release a new handheld this side of 2010. I reckon we are looking at 2010 minimum before it's released and they both need to be backward compatible.

I think the nintendo ds is going to pass the ps2 for hardware sales give it 2 years from now.