Ninty shuns iphone - investors unhappy.

[Rainbird]

As always, it's (mainly) about games. The 3DS has a very attractive price now, and with the right games it will do very well.

Nintendo's errors have been in trying to make third parties drive sales for the 3DS. Nintendo wants third parties to bring their big PS3/360/PC IPs to Nintendo devices, but they're not giving developers enough incentives to do so. And one of the incentives has been time for the third parties to establish themselves on the platform, which has led to the 3DS suffering lackluster sales.

Here's the problem with getting the third parties in my opinion: The 3DS is not attractive enough for developers, partly because of install base, which Nintendo now seeks to rectify, but also because of the hardware. The only unique capabilities the 3DS has over competing devices is its 3D screen and StreetPass. Every other feature has been done on other devices (which includes Nintendo's own).
The 3D has proven shaky, and new lines of smartphones with 3D are releasing, making the mobile 3D market more crowded. And I haven't seen Nintendo push StreetPass as a killer feature at all.

So what I think Nintendo needs to do to attract third parties first and foremost, is to become a top tier publishing partner for independent developers, in the same way EA and THQ have their partner programs, and Sony have their great reputation for supporting developers.
If Nintendo can keep supplying the 3DS with their own games, along with having the likes of Crytek, Insomniac, Epic and other independent developers creating exclusive content for their platforms, they will start to attract more third parties.

Nintendo thinks they can win over third parties in one big swoop, but winning the support and loyalty of the big publishers and developers, means that Nintendo have to make sure there is an audience for their games.
Luring independent developers with good publishing support could be a good step in the right direction from here.