As smartphone become more and more widespread, and the cell phone accessories built into them become more technologically advanced, we are starting to see several once popular portable electronic devices start to go the way of the dodo.
While the iPod already dominated all other MP3 players, the emergence of smartphones capable of streaming music as well as playing MP3’s has only further served to kill off competing models. Then as the cameras on phones continued to climb the megapixel mountain, we have started to see a decline in point and shoot digital camera sales. In fact, the iPhone is now the #1 uploader of photos to the popular photo sharing sight Flickr.
Up next seems to be portable gaming consoles. While devices like the PSP and Nintendo 3DS dominate market share, smartphones are steadily carving out a larger chunk of that industry each and every year. The Sony Xperia Play (aka the PlayStation phone) is the most obvious example of the shifting tides, but devices like the iPhone, and the gaming apps that have been developed for it, are responsible for the majority of the cannibalization.
While its unfortunate for manufacturers, the reality is that it is more convenient for consumers to only have to carry around one device to do what it used to take 4 devices to do.