I keep on shaking my DSLite every time I jump in New Super Mario Brothers.... so yes & no cause I'm afraid I'm going to break the hinges

Older hardcore Nintendo fans are not Nintendo's bread and butter. Anyone that is aware of Nintendo's recent successes on the DS and Wii front is aware of that. Like it or not, the casual crowd was key to Nintendo's success this generation. And like I said, even Gamecube had the support of children. And if you look at software sales and what gets stocks on shelves, it's very clear that casuals are the bread and butter. When the 3DS comes out, the core Nintendo camp will buy it like crazy at launch. And then the sales will drop off sharply. Until it gets to the sweet spot price point for handheld. Which is gonna take awhile.

I predict that the 3DS is going to be a late bloomer (like the PS3 but more successful due to the lack of competition in the western handheld market). It's going to take awhile for the 3DS technology to be cheap enough for Nintendo to hit that sweet spot price point. When it finally does, it'll be very popular. The 3DS is ahead of it's time and was released prematurely. There was no need to rush out a successor. The DS was still going strong up until the 3DS got announced (just look at the figures). And if it wasn't for the premature 3DS announcement this year, the DS wouldn't have dropped off this year hardware and software sales wise (and even then, it's still doing very well). Sony isn't a threat. Apple doesn't threaten their market. They could have waited until the 3DS tech was cheap enough to launch it at a reasonable price point.

Buying a freakin iPhone for your child (along with the expensive contract that comes with it) is not the norm. In North American culture, this kind of indulgence is looked down upon.

As for the PSP, the main reason why it's not that successful in North America in the first place has to do with the fact that the DS is cheaper and thus much more attractive to parents. Teenagers and adults with disposable income were mainly the PSP's target audience. Not children. But that didn't work out for Sony because in North America (except for major urban centers like New York City) most teenagers over 16 and adults drive a car. In Tokyo and other urban centers in Japan, where salarymen take the subway and bus, the PSP is a strong no.2 and a real threat to Nintendo. But the Japanese market's volume is drowned out by the massiveness of the North American and European markets so Japan doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things anymore.

Now that the PSP is more reasonably priced, they're trying to market to the pre-teen crowd (Marcus campaign) as a "cooler big boy" alternative to Nintendo. You can get a PSP-3000 with Modnation Racers bundle for $170. Which is a pretty decent deal for kids. Though I think Sony should thrown in a 2 GB memory stick pro duo too at that price to make the PSP more attractive.

@loves2splooge  I think it is time for a new portable, the DS is old and the tech is showing, plus the piracy is out of control I know alot of people who simply do not buy games for DS at all cause of R4. So Nintendo needed to do something to stop that

People keep saying Nintendo will drop the price shortly after launch, but if you look at their recent history -- the DS and Wii -- they haven't been doing that much in recent years.

The Wii only got it's first price drop because Nintendo wanted to stymie the PS3's sales momentum when the Slim was released.

And the DS Lite has never, to my knowledge, hit the sweet spot of $99.00.  Even with the cuts to DSi and XL.

They did that with the DS.

So you compare the two mediums in price, but refuse to see the difference in the actual medium?

You're talking about 3d tv like it's 'Playstation 3D' and not 'A home entertainment system that can play 3D games on the PS3'.

Sony is not asking you to pay 2500$ for 3d gaming. They are telling 3dtv owners and possible owners that there will be 3D ps3 games for people that have 3d tvs.

The 3DS is not similar in any aspect. It plays games and may have some movies, but it's a console not a tv.

3Dtv is not a Playstation.

As far as disruption is concerned, I wouldn't be too..well..concerned about it. Disruption requires a shield. And the 3DS has no shield. There is nothing keeping Sony from making the psp2 3D. In fact, it is in their every interest to do so for the purpose of linking their brand of portable 3d to home theater 3d. While I agree it's a disruptive product. It's potential for disruption is far below the market the pre-released wii was looking at.

The medium is 3d content. So far, with a 3d TV, the content has only consisted of movies and games just as the 3DS. There are no 3d television channels yet.

In fact, for 3d TV buyers, there is very little content at all. That's one of the issues Nintendo wanted to tackle with the 3DS; to have lots of interesting content right at the system's launch.

Sony was caught off guard by the reaction to the 3DS. Even if they did suddenly decide to add 3D to the PSP2, it would be a rushed, uninspired imitation. Remember Sixaxis? Sony quickly responded to Wii's motion control in the same way, but it didn't go anywhere.

Actually, in America i've seen channels that are for ONLY 3D T.Vs so... Don't ask me about it. Go search the web im sure you'll find what you seek.

I don't think Iwata is arrogant at all. Exactly the opposite actually - I think he is very humble, able to make some sense instead of trying to hype his gaming devices with stupid remarks about giant enemy crabs, and he damn well knows what he's talking about.

Yeah, I like that but I think we shouldn't be punshied because they amazed with this handheld. Anyway, I hope Nintendo bundles it with Zelda OoT. That'd be killer.

I apologize if someone felt offended by my topic.

(Sorry for bad English)