The market for dedicated portable game consoles from Nintendo and Sony appears to be shrinking due to competition from iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Data from IDC and App Annie shows that fourth quarter 2012 consumer spending on game apps from the App Store and Google Play was greater than spending on those portable consoles.
In the Portable Gaming Report (PDF), the two companies noted that well over 20 billion games were downloaded across the mobile platforms in 2012, and that over a third of app downloads were games.
The report also pointed out a fascinating statistic -- in terms
