Last month news came out that Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) (OTC: NTDOY) exceeded Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE: SNE) in terms of market capitalization, with analysts citing the global popularity of the DS and Wii consoles for the boost.

Nintendo's global popularity comes in part because of its shift in strategy: make game systems and games for everyone. People are buying the Nintendo DS not just to play "Madden NFL" or "Need for Speed", but also to study, keep a budget and even learn languages and speech. The Wall Street Journal discusses today that the Nintendo DS is used to practice English at Otokoyama Higashi Junior High School in Japan.

Adults took interest in the DS when Nintendo released Brain Age, a quiz game designed to stimulate minds with daily quizzes to test reflexes, speed-arithmetic and memorization skills. Afterwards, an English dictation game that improved spelling and listening created the demand for a new type of DS software.

There is some news out of the U.K. that Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE)'s PSP, the PlayStation Portable, may actually get turned into a phone with BT Group (NYSE: BT), formally known as British Telecom. There is already a clip-on mini-camera available for it, and the advanced communications just takes it that much further into a PC and total communications device with video, voice, and wi-fi.

One small problem. Last weekend I was at GameStop looking for a gift for my nephew and when I asked the people working about the PSP, they told me that it was a disaster. They said the Nintendo DS was far better, and this was a bit surprising considering the sleekness of the PSP. Even a buyer at the register that owned a PSP said he wished he didn't buy it.

So maybe as a phone and full-on communications center it may be better, but if the people selling it are going to directly discourage this, then how successful can it be? Sounds like they'll need to convince at least some more of the sellers of the PSP that improvements have been made.

Jon Ogg is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Sony (NYSE:SNE) has decided that it cannot stay out of the race to catch the iPod, so it joins companies like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sandisk in pursuing the Holy Grail of multimedia devices. The Japanese consumer electronics company will now offer video downloads for its Playstation Portable.

Given how many people already have an iPod with video capacity, a Zune, or one of the other devices that runs video and looking at the video download offerings from Amazon to Apple, it would seem that Sony is a bit late to the game.

Being late is, of course, nothing new for Sony.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.