Do the NDS and PSP stand a chance against smartphones?

According to a recent report published by Interpret LLC, a cross-media market research firm, they have made some surprising findings regarding the usage of handheld consoles such as the NDS and PSP versus smartphones. Their research shows that 43.8% of the phone/DS/PSP market comes from phones- a significant 53.2% increase over the past year. And the percentage of who still play games on their DS/PSP devices has fallen by 13%. And 27.2% of consumers who only play games on their phones own a DS or PSP but don’t use them anymore. Quite a shocker don’t you think? Especially when smartphone gaming hasn’t been very big until recently. Maybe this is why Sony Ericsson decided to go ahead with the PlayStation Phone in hopes of taking advantage of this trend. This shows that handheld console makers really have to turn it up more than a notch if they intend on sticking around in the market. What do you think Nintendo will do in response to this information? I’m putting my bets on an NDS phone, or a new handheld console so revolutionary that the gaming experience can’t be replicated on a smartphone.

[image credit: Gaming Angels]