I talked to a couple of friends in my lab today and it turns out I was wrong before when I stated that nobody in my research group would be interested in buying a PSP. Both of my friends had heard about the PSP and were looking into possibly buying one, even though neither of them are really into gaming right now (although one of them did own an Xbox at one point, and the other one used to play Nintendo games such as Mario). So that was a pleasant surprise--maybe the PSP has mainstream appeal after all.

Of course, much is being made of the PSP sales over the past week, although official numbers haven't been released yet. It appears as though the PSP's first-week sales will be slightly higher than the first-week sales for the DS. But all those people who are using this information to argue that the PSP is either a success or a flop really need to stop. Just because the PSP did better in its first week than the DS doesn't mean that Sony will now dominate the handheld market. For one thing, the DS only had about 500,000 units available at launch, while the PSP had closer to 1 million units available. Additionally, the pre-launch hype for the PSP was significantly bigger than the hype for the DS--Nintendo was pleasantly surprised by the impressive sales for the DS, while Sony expected to sell out. And the DS sold primarily on the basis of its uniqueness--the system had relatively few games to entice buyers compared to the PSP, so the DS might have sold even faster with a better launch lineup. And for all the Nintendo fanboys who think the PSP has flopped, think again. The DS was released during the holiday shopping season, while the PSP was released during a slow sales month. And the higher price point of the PSP probably played a factor in slower-than-expected sales. Finally, Sony hasn't even shifted its marketing campaign into high gear yet.

The bottom line is that both systems will probably do quite well in the foreseeable future, and there's nothing wrong with that.