I have an interesting hypothesis that seems to fit.

Taking a look at the slowing sales of consoles and the PSP the DS keeps selling like mad. After looking at the trend in Japan that every console is dying basically, really the Wii under 60k isnt right, yet the DS holds 80k+. I believe that the DS is actually taking aways sales of every other piece of gaming hardware because its cheap and its like the PS2, tons of software both good and bad.

What makes me wonder is if the DS is stealing sales how long till it becomes insanely noticeable to Nintendo that their market in Japan is 80% Ds and 20% Wii and the rest of the world is like 70% Ds 30% Wii. Truly Nintendo if they want to sell the Wii to the PS2's numbers and not have the DS do it, they need to release a new handheld at a $199 price tag again so that more people look at all the gaming hardware out instead of just looking at and saying "oh $99 and that many game" they can start going "this console is a bit pricey but it has these good looking games."

So overall I believe Nintendo is killing the home console market. Dont believe me look at the trends in the sales numbers for the last few months. You will notice the DS always out sells everything. 

Ds sold under 30k for almost two whole months, like the wii is doing right now... Wii is going to outsell everything soon

Japan seems to be becoming the nation of the handheld. The "training" games are a real big deal there. Kanji training, English training, quiz/trivia games, classical music games, art appreciation games, the list is enormous and extensive. There really is something to appeal to anybody. Once the DS caught on it was the thing to have. That's Japan. They pick a winner and stick with it. I've lived there and was there this summer and the DS craze is as big as anything I've seen. Nintendo and the third parties have been publishing tons of titles, not just games but lots of training programs, to take advantage of the huge userbase and it has been paying off. The momentum for the DS has cooled off a bit since the big Pokemon push this summer but the DS is going to keep selling like crazy for a number of years and I'm really curious as to when Nintendo is going to come out with a successor.

America hasn't seen the "training" title deluge like Japan. I suspect this has to do with NOA's observation (true or not) that those types of titles wouldn't do as well in NA. There are titles like Spanish and French Language trainers coming out this year and it will be interesting to see how much of a market there is for them. The market for the DS in America still has a huge untapped potential and userbase that Nintendo is trying to reach. The "Brain Age" titles have so far shown that the NA market is not as receptive to these titles. I put some of that down to marketing, but also, it may be that the games aren't designed for optimal acceptance in the NA market. The DS has already captured all of the "core gamer" market that there is to get. Anyone claiming to be a "core gamer" that doesn't own a DS is a fraud. The challenge for Nintendo and NOA is how to transform the DS into a "must have" entertainment, educational or application appliance like the iPod, PC, Personal Organizer or cell phone.

Does it matter to Nintendo? Either way they are dominating the market absolutely.

They make a nice profit off EVERY DS and Wii sold, im sure they have no problem with this even if your right SSj12. Judging by the amount of software the DS is moving compared to the Wii, if they could have just one console win im sure they'd prefer the DS.

 I still think it's still too early to judge the Wii in Japan.  I have a feeling that once some more big Nintendo games hit the system it will take off like the DS did.  The DS had a horrible software year it's first year and look at it now.  Hopefully Nintendo starts moving some of it's training and sim games to the Wii using WiiWare.

speaking of making the DS the must have entertainment like the ipod,pc, etc. does anyone think that the successor to the DS will go the traditionally un-nintendo route and add new electronic features to it beyond gaming to make it THE handheld electronic device to have?? like still being an innovate gaming machine at heart but having a good sized hard drive with expanded online services from what the DS has, ability to download music/movies from the computer or just straight from the internet and have a voice chat thing with friends at anytime almost like a phone (and being able to write messages to friends at any time if it has another touch screen.... interesting. i doubt it since that is like something sony would do and not nintendo. but with the recent push for these super handheld devices that do everything and the fact that DS very well could hit 170-200 million when all is said and done in say like 6 years (which is when i think they should realease DS's successor, a couple years after the next gen consoles) its pretty hard to imagine something doing better than the DS. the technology would be there to make it so they could possibly do this for a not super expensive price (starting at $199) and be a gaming machine with features like a phone/ipod/movie player.

 What I'm meaning is that I see the DS stealing sales from the Wii. I wouldn't be shocked if the Wii generates more profit then the DS so in my mind I think that the DS is actually lowering possible profits from Nintendo. 

I think it's just more that kids hate to share.

Every kid I know has a DS, even brothers and sisters.

Brothers for Pokemon and Sisters for Nintendogs... etc.

The DS has become more like a personal gadget. Much like a mobile phone. In our household, for instance, there are 3 of them. We are planning to get a Wii soon. It doesn't make much sense to get more than 1 Wii whereas multiple DS systems is somewhat acceptable.