That's subjective. What I mean is that the 3DS drops the interface innovations which initially made the DS and Wii stand out, and adopted the SNES and N64 philosophy with a more "tech-oriented" system to build on the succes of its predecessor.

Virtual Boy you mean =)

Bah, it's the one Nintendo console that I actually don't care about it the slightest. Can't blame me for forgetting its name.

The philosophy of the DS and Wii was to expand gaming to different audiences. The 3DS is certainly trying to do this, whether it's successful or not is a matter of opinion, but it's certainly following the same philosophy.

Going against this philosophy would have been releasing a super-powered HD portable for 400 dollars (see NGP).

Granted I think Nintendo has a lot of misplaced confidence in 3d effects. There are large hurdles for non-gamers to jump over with the 3ds ( can my six year old use it? Will it make me sick? etc etc).

I think the emphasis is going to have to be on the software. DS and Wii would have been nothing if it wasn't for the Brain Ages, Nintendogs, Wii Fits or Wii Sports.

So far 3DS has made a good start with AR games and all, but they need a super-selling piece of software which so far they don't have yet.

Correct. I do think they will do a price drop to $200 in 4Q 2011 or 1Q 2012, but overall this system does NOT go against Nintendo's most recent (DS-era and beyond) philosophy. Namely, to create systems that are truly innovative and not just graphical rehashes of the previous system. Of course, they are still following their original philosophy as well, which is to sell good hardware with good software.

However, I believe that Nintendo has a third philosophy that they have been desparately wanting to follow, without much success outside of Japan. That is the social aspect that you mention. You see, in Japan it is a common sight to see someone playing on their DS. For a comparison think America (or UK, or Canada, or whatever country you live in) in 1999, when Pokémon was huge. People brought their Game Boys and Link Cables everywhere. By percentage of the population, Pokémon is bigger in Japan NOW than it was in America THEN, and many people take their DS's everywhere they go. ONLY Nintendo games have cracked 5 million (incidentally, all 5 first-sets of Pokémon games are in that list of 9 games). All but one of them (Super Mario Bros.) is a portable game. Looking past these top 9, similar trends show up, but not as extreme (3/4 of the top 25 are Nintendo-made, and 2/3 are portable).

The entire reason that Pokémon spread so fast was just that: it spread. It was a very good game in and of itself (if it was bad it would have never taken off), but what set it apart was that the game itself served as its own advertising. Satoshi Tajiri, in my opinion the best marketing genius of our generation, produced two versions of the game, both essentially the same. In order to complete the Pokédex and catch 'em all, you had to trade with other players. Many people would take their Game Boys with them places to find people to trade with. This, in addition to Tajiri's secret addition of a 151st Pokémon, caused the series to skyrocket... it was viral marketing at its finest, and it was what caused Nintendo to not scrap the Game Boy series.

It would be nearly 15 years before Nintendo would try something like that again. Enter a fine specimen of gaming excellence called the 3DS. The StreetPass feature of this revolutionary system is Nintendo's latest attempt at viral marketing. In Nintendo's own words, "people really have to see [the 3DS] to believe it". Packaged with the system are two games: "StreetPass Quest" and "StreetPass Puzzle". StreetPass Quest is a turn-based combat game in which you have to recruit Miis from people you have passed to rescue a king. By completing levels, you can collect and win hats for your Miis. In StreetPass Puzzle, every time you pass somebody, you receive a piece of a Nintendo-themed puzzle. Complete the puzzle and you can look at 3D models of the characters in the puzzle. Hmmm... collections, checklist, social interaction with your portable game system required to complete the list, turn-based RPG... sound familiar? In my opinion the 3DS will become a huge sensation before the end of 2011. It just needs to sell some more before it can sell a LOT more.

Oh, and the 3DS probably won't be the only thing that becomes huge... surely the games will do well due to better presence... people who have the 3DS in their pockets may actually take it OUT of their pocket and INTO their hands... and not just in Japan, where such activity is already common. The games that will do especially well are those which take the most advantage of such interactions. In conclusion, I would not be surprised at all if a pair of nearly identical games released around 2013 for the 3DS becomes the first non-bundle game to surpass 15 million sales in North America. Note that non-bundle refers only to games which have never been bundled with any system or key accessory which sells for $10 or more by itself (note that the top 8 are all bundle games by that definition... the current top non-bundle game in America is Pokémon Red/Blue, with 11.44m sales).

No, no, no. the thing just came out. Your going to get all those Brain Age and Nintydogs and whatever game you thought was unique for DS/Wii, only in 3D. Only now it looks like 3rd parties are actually going to support the damn thing. Everyone wins. Ninty fans get their series that they have been playing for decades and non-ninty fans at the least get some cool looking 3rd party games.  I dont see a problem

@chizrum  what are you talking about??? 3DS didnt drop anything. It has motion tech and touch screen, if anything the 3DS added features and thats rarely a bad thing

No.

It's pricey, yes, but so was the Wii at $250 based on what you were getting (upgraded GC with motion controls).  At least now you're getting similar power in your hands with a 3D screen.

Mind you, as much as I love Satoshi Tajiri (for all the two games he really made, I rank him ahead of Miyamoto, :P), referring to your third paragraph, Miyamoto was the one who came up with the idea of two separate versions and I'm pretty sure it was someone else from Game Freak who stuffed Mew into Pokemon RG at the last moment.

Disregarding that detail, though, your argument is actually quite convincing. I hope you're right, :D.

No. 

The hardware doesn't distance itself from pulling in new customers in that it's pretty accessible to anyone, but 3D's appeal to new markets is minimal.

However, it currently lacks any software that would appeal to a blue ocean market.

(Nintendog's & Professor Layton's crowd is no longer blue ocean, that's established)

If all future software will be more of the same (MarioKart, Zelda, Kid Icaris and established 3rd party brands) then yes, there's nothing about it that will draw in new (previously non-gaming) customers.   However, Nintendo put out Nintendogs and Brain Age on DS, let's see if they have something similar for 3DS planned for later in the year (when the enthusiasts crowd sales have died off)