When Nintendo enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the handheld videogame market in the 80s, it may have anticipated that it could one day face competition from some other manufacturer of video games consoles; when the Sony PSP came around, Nintendo thought it was ready.

What they weren’t so ready for was the way people would one day come to own little handheld phones that were virtually full-blown computers. And that these would play and compete head-on with a dedicated handheld.

Certainly, both Sony and Nintendo sell millions of units all over the world and are very successful in video games.

But if there is one startling fact that the handheld video game business needs to feel fearfor, it has to be this – the Nintendo DS has about 5000 titles; the Sony PSP has more than 600; the iPhone has more than 20,000.

Not that Apple isn’t aware of the way its phones are becoming the de facto standard for the handheld videogame user. Each iteration of the iPhone comes with faster processors, better operating systems and more memory to better play games.

In other words, the iPhone and other smartphones, with their gameplaying capabilities, are going far beyond what dedicated handhelds are capable of. Everyone watched all agog as Steve Jobs announced the iPad 2. Most people weren’t aware though, of how the president of Nintendo had a video game developers‘ conference right there too.

And he was talking about how smartphones with their $1 and $2 video games, were driving down the quality of what video games were capable of, for the whole industry; how they were making videogame development an unprofitable venture for most developers.

Certainly, cheap games for smartphones have led the charge in completely changing the way people experience video games. Nintendo is worried that since video games for smartphones are so cheap, developers interested in putting together a truly wonderful game will stop finding it profitable.

Games will just not be all that profitable anymore. Still, perhaps it might just be a case of sour grapes. Developers may be forced to sell their games for under five dollars on the app store; but there are millions of app customers worldwide who could more than make up in volume what they lack in buying power.

You have to admit that smartphone games aren’t as deep or as fully featured as the current games you get on a handheld video game machine. But that could change as smartphones become more powerful and more entrenched.

Related articles from around the Web:

• Overview: Japan’s Video Game Market In 2011 (Sales, Hardware, Software) (techcrunch.com)
• 5 Video Game Moments that Defined 2011 (mashable.com)
• Sony in Big Trouble with PS Vita (forbes.com)

If you’re a gamer with a limited budget looking for a laptop for gaming, you may be better off buying a desktop computer. You get a lot more mileage for your money. But laptops, more and more, are becoming mainstream and don’t really cost much more than desktops as they used to.

You really could find a laptop for gaming that was designed with all the right features, that wasn’t that much more expensive than the desktop equivalent. Here is what you need to know.

How do you know that a given machine is a gaming laptop? Well, usually, they don’t build them to be as slim and lightweight as regular laptops. They are built for performance, even if it means a less flattering figure.

Now a laptop for gaming isn’t just a powerful laptop. It needs to have specific features built in that don’t all have to do with performance.

Let’s look at something to do with performance first of all and get out of the way. It goes without saying that a gaming laptop needs a powerful graphics card built into the system. Since this is meant to be an evergreen advice article and not just something for today, it’s hard to specify what kind of graphics card it should be.

As of late 2011, one specification you could look for would be a card built-in that had 2GB in graphics memory. That isn’t the only specification you need to look for though. Just look for the best discrete desktop graphics card for gamers they are selling at the moment, and look for something that’s nearly as powerful for your laptop.

A good way to judge how adequate the graphics card on your laptop is, would be to look up the recommended configuration for the games you intend to play. If your laptop has something like that, you’re good to go.

But apart from the performance, you’re looking for things that make gaming actually easy and convenient.

For instance, if they call it a laptop for gaming and the keys seem all crammed together, that’s poor design. Look for well-spaced backlit keys and a tapering keyboard design. You need to be able to hit those keys in a split second.

Of course, you need a good screen that’s at least 15 inches, and full HD would not be a bad idea either. But you do want screen quality and sound quality that really live up to what the game designers have intended. And intend very well, they do.

They design games these days to spectacular Hollywood movie levels of budget. The better your screen and sound are, the better you’ll enjoy your game. Look for audio ports that will allow you to directly plug your laptop into a surround sound system if it’s available.

Of course, if you are not on a budget, then you could take a look at the popular Dell Alienware M18X Gaming Laptop!