El Segundo, Calif. —Sales of handheld video game devices are bucking the recession and will rise by 8.2 percent in dollars and 4.9 percent in units this year on a worldwide basis, said iSuppli.
The growth is fueled in part by recent upgrades to the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and DS (now DSi) handheld devices.
Shipments of handheld game consoles worldwide are expected to grow to 63.5 million units by 2013, up from 49.4 million units in 2008. This represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.2 percent during the forecast period. Revenues are set to grow to $8.1 billion by 2013, rising at a CAGR of 6.4 percent from $5.9 billion in 2008, said iSuppli. No figures were available for U.S. handheld game device sales.
Sony in October 2008 launched the
and Nintendo launched its
in April 2009 in the U.S. and in November 2008 in Japan.
