It seems Nintendo is really trying to push the New 3DS into the hands of the Japanese public, and by reducing the number of colours available on the older units, there'll be little choice for the fashionably minded than to buy the newer system. The Japanese audience were privy to many colours that we in The West were not, but with the New 3DS' Kisekae Plates we should be able to have more customisation than we know what to do with.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/11/nintendos_official_japanese_site_suggests_discontinuation_of_certain_3ds_units

Makes sense overall. The new 3ds/xl costs almost the same price and does more stuff as well as play all the current games... It was only a matter of time really

I had predicted that in a thread where I was asking people if nintendo has to do a brave price cut on 3ds and 3dsxl because of new3ds/xl and then discontinue them...!I won the second part of my phrase!
It is expected,3ds and 3ds xl have reached the point of total market saturation in Japan.
Probably the stock of them are very low in japan and it is going to deplete.
Nintnedo won't ship old models,so it discontinue them.
Thanks god that nintendo released new3ds/xl in japan and sales are similar to its peak year.(2013) The sales would be the half of what they are now if there wasn't any revision!
I m wondering when it will discontinue them and when it will get rid of the whole stock!Shortly,I think.

It makes sense. They will discontinue all 3DS models, sell them at a cheap price to get rid of stock, and sell the N3DS.
Also, is the N3DS backwards compatible with the original DS?

I'm hoping they'll discontinue the tricolored cake original as well because that one's long-forgotten on the Japanese charts.

This happened sooner than I expected TBH. Are the 3DS and 3DS XL really that badly designed that making them into budget models would make them sell at a loss or something?

Anyways, I'm hoping somebody comes out with something that makes custom for the New 3DS/XL, that would be cool.

I suppose they're no longer needed since the New 3DS & XL still have BC with DS software. Kinda weird that Nintendo doesn't just use them as budget models and sell them for cheap.

Earlier than I had expected.

They are around the same price, so this is expected