n-gage is alive and kicking.

but it now a full platform instead of a single device.

it runs in all nokia new smartphones.

According to the evidence, you cannot shoehorn in a feature and expect it to be compelling to users. As well, making an ancillary feature that has a great deal of focus but little value to the customer base is bad business; you're just wasting money on resources that few are interested in that way, which is the opposite of good business tactics (reduce expenditures by paring back features to suit the needs of the majority of users sufficiently).

If a cell phone/handheld gaming platform is to succeed, it must be designed and marketed specifically as one; anything less will only result in niche appeal. If that means making a new brand name to avoid stigma for the main product line, then so be it; many companies have done that in the past, and it works well. But you cannot sell a cell/handheld combo as a cell with ancillary gaming features and expect it to spark a revolution in the markets any more than you can afford to sell a cell/handheld combo with the features properly balanced and only have it used by the majority of customers for one feature and not the other. Effective market merges are all-or-nothing prospects, not wishy-washy either/or options.

@Jo21: I know that the N-gage is still alive... but I think we can agree the original groject was a huge failure... it was marketed as the ultimate cellphone-gaming-hybrid... but it was much to expencive and lacked intersting games... In its first weeks of availability in the United States, it was outsold by the GBA 100 to 1. Within 17 days of the deck's release, popular retailers GameStop and Electronics Boutique began offering $100 rebates. Thata why I said no cellphone maker would ever market a cellphone primarily as agaming device again...

You don´t need to shoehorn any features into a cellphone... the potential is there... you don´t need to add anything... poeple don´t care how many extra functions a cellphone has as long as they don´t have to pay for them... so the first part of your text makes little sence... you invest very little to no resources but your product gets another great function... not great fo all but those who don´t want it don´t need to use it, its free.

"If a cell phone/handheld gaming platform is to succeed, it must be designed and marketed specifically as one; anything less will only result in niche appeal."

Really ??? What about cameras in phones ??? No niche appeal there... or mp3 players ??? No niche appeal there... I´m not saying there will be one cellphone to change it all and take on Nintendo... but as time goes by cellphones will play more and better games and the handheld and cellphone markets will slowly merge... no big bang or revolution...

Cellphones are all about having as many functions as possible, if you are making a multimedia device that can use internet, mp3s, photos, videos, TV... why not put games on it... with so many people allready buying games for cellphones devs and phone producers would be fools not to advance that aspect...

Ah, you speak of market evolution. I tend to think along the lines of large-scale market captures, revolutions if you will, not slow merges. In terms of a slow merge, the values could potentially match up enough that cell phones might eventually eat into the handheld market some. However, evolutionary market tactics take a lot longer than revolutionary, and are extremely prone to revolutionary tactics undoing them. Meaning eventually handhelds would evolve in such a way that cell phones cannot imitate and take away significant market share from them any more without shifting their own values considerably.

And the N-Gage service is still going to offer no real threat or competition to the DS or PSP. 

Combining gaming and cell phones is pretty stupid.  If I really want to drain my batteries at record speeds, I'd just spend more time talking on the phone.

All-in-one devices sound good on paper, but tend not to be very successful when average shmoe consumers are factored into the equation.  If something is too complex or complicated, consumers turn a blind eye.

I think it's laughable that Apple feels they can compete with the DS and PSP.  Sounds more like famous last words.

@ Sky: I don´t think hanhelds will evolve in a way that cellphones cannot imitate them... they had the touchscreed but new cellphones have that too... I don´t think they can outrun the cellphones...

Never assume you know the ways of the future. Disruption is inevitable, and with it comes changes that shake up assumptions. Progress occurs solely because people do challenge assumptions.

There was a time when nobody believed human flight was possible. There was a time when the concept of near-instant communication across the globe was thought pure fantasy. There was an age when video games were not even thought of. There was an era where the gun was inconceivable. Not a century ago, the idea of space travel was considered suitable for science fiction alone. All of these views changed. No assumption is secure.

^^ Lol, I´m not saying I can look into the future or that things that are inconceivable now will stay inconceivable, I am talking about imitation... cellphones are doing a good job at imitating handhelds already, why should they not be able to do so in the future ??? You are the one assumeing to know things about the future, I am merly saying that every new technology will be stolen, imitated and improved... I don´t see how this will be different in the future...

I'm just pointing out that a sufficient value conflict arising between handhelds and cell phones could make imitation impractical for cell phones. I can't say what that conflicting value would necessarily be, of course, but you can bet that Nintendo at least is looking into it; they have a funny habit of spotting threats before they hit, even if they don't always respond in a timely fashion to them.