Yeah, just a quick note here... the whole portable aspect of handheld gaming is vastly overrated for anyone who is in any way, shape or form a social person. Why play videogames on a tiny screen when the entire world is around you? I think the only time I have ever played the DS outside of my house or a car-trip was during a 4 hour wait in-between classes...and just once, at that.
I'm anticipating "oh, but then explain why so many people are texting all the time!!", and the answer to that is: as dumb as texting is (in my humble opinion), it also happens to be a form of communication. Even though it looks like everybody's got their nose in their cell phone, they're still communicating in some -- albeit inferior -- way. With gaming, it hasn't reached that point of saturation where almost everybody has a portable console and anybody can just play multiplayer. I highly doubt any dedicated gaming platform will reach that level of saturation -- it will undoubtedly be a hybrid device.
As much as it pains me to say it, REAL portable gaming will be found on devices like the iPhone. But let me make something clear -- I don't see the point of "real" portable gaming in the first place and prefer console experiences, like the DS began to offer and like the 3DS is expanding upon.