I see the same problem here.

While people may be quick to say how great it would be (or how great it would make the device with 3G access), I think far fewer people would actually be utilizing said feature if they had to pay a monthly data service plan comparable to typical smart phones which is $30 or more per month.

For something that was primarily a gaming device, I'd have to play an obscene amount of portable games to make any such subscription plan worth my while. This isn't like paying the $3 and change a month you pay for XBL Gold or PSN .

On the other hand, if Nintendo can structure a reasonable per GB price structuring for 3G access, much like their current network cards, it could definitely work, even if it would mean "feeding the meter" periodically to keep your 3G network gaming enabled.

While a piggyback or shared plan for existing 3G network subscribers would be great for those users, I question how that would be beneficial to anyone but Nintendo unless they were paying 3G network service providers a decent percentage of the revenues.

A remember a while ago that Iwata expressed interest in 3G for the DS' successor (this was before 3DS was announced)

Iwata once was quoted to say he "interested in Kidnle-like serivce for DS". It has nothing to do with phones and data plans, as it supposed to be completely free for end-customer (Nintendo would probably pay MNO with share from distribution of digital content) and limited to certain services provided by Nintendo (no Internet, phone functionality etc).

What are benefits of "Kindle-like" 3G connectivity in 3DS? First, 3DS units would be "3G ready", no additional customization needed , it could help Nintendo to battle ignorance of a lot of their users, who aren't that tech-savvy, about downloadable distribution of content more successfully than WiFi connectivity. Furthermore, it's always on and works almost everywhere, while WiFi is limited to certain spots. What are drawbacks? Well, I'm not aware of details, but possibly, price of incorporation of 3G in 3DS, and battery life.

That would be cool. But I'd rather have an actual phone.

that actually makes much more sense.  i'm suddenly remined of the interview with whomever it was about nintendo's online strategy and the answer was something like, "we are looking into a push type systems to push alerts to consumers".  among other possibilites the obvious one is that advertisement is what is being pushed which could offset any cost incurred to nintendo.

3DS cards have a maximum of 2GB at launch, but that will likely go up.  For comparison, DS cards had a maximum capacity of 128MB at launch, and now we have 512MB cards being used for commercial games.  

Also, while others have mentioned offloading the costs associated with physical goods (manufacturing, distribution, retail) to the service provider, an additional pricing solution I could see would be adding a tiered system to the platform itself (similar to iPhone), meaning maybe 3DS would come at two pricepoints with 2 levels of functionality (say vanilla for $199, and 3G ready at $299, meaning the cost of the network is also figured into that extra $100 increase Kindle-style). 

well even bigger games means even more cost.  $100 increase won't make up for the 3G if we're talking $20 per game in delivery cost.  not to mention that downloaing 2Gb on a 3G would take forever.  i know apple caps the size an application can be to download over 3G (otherwise you need wifi) but i'm not aware of what that size limit is.  i know that whatever that size is it can still take quite a while to download though and it is no were near 2Gb.

i'm going with mr khan on this one - if there is 3G its going to be something smaller in scope like tweets and such. 

I don't expect 3DSWare or Virtual Console Express or whatever games you can download on 3DS to be equivalent to the full retail games though (unlike the current UMD/PSN model for PSP). Like with DSi, I'd expect a specific download service with it's own titles, and likely with lower ceilings on titles and maybe even further caps over what you could download on 3G.  Apple's 3G cap is 10MB for downloads btw (which is way too low imo, most podcasts are even bigger) though you can stream content of any size on iPhone OS.  The current ceiling on DSiWare games is 45MB (same for WiiWare actually). 

Also, if Nintendo were to set up such a service and make deals with providers, you can be sure they'd not be paying the consumer level $10/GB pricepoint.  The 3G model price hike would be a supplemental cost factor, AT&T or whoever would also likely take a small cut of each paid download.

It would be great for a couple of reasons.

1) It will allow people in NA to have access to multiplayer or online game functions on the go. Where I live there are almost no Wi-Fi hubs unless I'm at home or school, places I wouldn't necessarily be playing a handheld.

2) Free 3DS! That's right. It's free as long as u sign this 3 year contract. Subsidies for phones run the smart phone industry in NA.

I hope it's free.