To add another point: The PS3 was sold at a huge loss while Nintendo makes 100$ profit per unit (assuming these estimates are to be trusted). Nintendo raised the price intentionally to avoid a Wii-like situation.

I still maintain that they'll drop the price when the NGP releases, anyways. And next year, around June, we'll see the 3DS Lite

Well i knew it would happen, I was kind of hoping it would happen in a couple of weeks, 3DS being heavily compared to ps3. :P

Even in my eyes, people are not necessarily doing a good job of comparing. 

it would be very dissapointing for Nintendo if 3DS would follow the awful sales of the PS3

we want it to follow the Wii and the DS, except the shovelware part....

Both these statements are (more or less) correct ...

First off, a successful handheld (at least from a hardware sales perspective) has been released at $250 (PSP) while no successful home console had ever been sold at $600.

Beyond that the 3DS is $100 more expensive at launch in the US than the DS was, making it 66% more expensive, and about $75 of this can be attributed to exchange rate changes.

Once again, entirely exchange rate driven. Game prices aren't all that different in Japan or Canada; and I would expect they're very similar to what the DS games prices were in Austrailia and the Eurozone.

This is probably the biggest stretch in the post. While the 3DS is a step towards a convergent device, it is hard to claim that it "dives straight into the competition" being that (for the most part) it has far less convergence features than the PSP had at launch.

This is true of every videogame console release in (at least) a decade. All early adopters for all systems buy based on the potential and promised videogames.

I met few people who were waiting for the slim model, people rejected the PS3 (early on) because the price was insane.

Being that we haven't seen sales numbers for the first day of sales on the 3DS, I think it is amazingly early to say whether people are waiting to buy the system. Realistically, we won't know for months (and possibly not until after Christmas) how many people have been holding off buying a 3DS for the eventual next model; or even if people are holding off until they can buy a game they're interested in.

Most smartphones and all handheld systems will have these motion controls from launch, driven heavily by both developer and consumer demand. On top of this, additional features are only a negative if they come at the expense of a feature that is more desireable; since there is (effectively) nothing lost from adding motion controlls to the 3DS, I don't see the problem.

The lines between digital and physical space have been bluring for several years now, and games like Guitar Hero and Wii party have been highly successful (in part) by bluring the line where the game ends and the real world begins.

Once you try them, all of these AR products are very cool and it is obvious that they have the potential to be game changing; and the problem (at the moment) is converting the technology into interesting products.

Once again, this is true for all consoles in their first year.

Cool topic. We'll see how it all plays out. I am getting the NGP and will see when Kingdom Hearts launches for the 3DS whether I will be picking it up!

There's also a lot of similarity in the level of arrogance shown by Sony execs at PS3 launch with what Nintendo execs are doing today.

Eh, What do they got? Street fighter 4 over-milked edition, Pilotwings resort which doesn't seem that great, Ghost Recon which I haven't heard anything about, LEGO starwars III is actually pretty fun, The  Sims have lost their magic long ago,  and Nintendogs....plus cats. It's varied but to me, not very strong. I don't see a real system seller besides maybe combat of giants: Dinosaurs 3D since it's probably the more unique game. I will agree the Ps3 launch was not very impressive as well, with Resistance and Heavenly sword being the only note worthy.

woops, my bad. I thought it was a launch title. Appreciate the correction, but your right, PS3 line-up was unimpressive. I expect however that the 3DS will sell like a monster, same with the NGP, regardless of its line-up. Both handhelds have very devoted fans and will jump to the next consoles on the spot. I will get an NGP as soon as I have the money, again regardless of line-up.

I don't think it's exactly the same Erik... the price tag is going to hurt the 3DS IMO but it could and probably will come down sooner than other Nintendo consoles simply because Nintendo knows that price is a huge factor for handhelds.

As for library... the PS3 launched with some really rough titles that didn't show off what the system could do... the 3DS on the otherhand is a different story and it even has 3 first party launch titles one being a long awaited sequel to one of the biggest games of all time (even if I don't care as much for it, it's still in demand ) the PS3 only launched with two and both were new IPs that no one had ties to IE sequels people would want. 

Also nearly HALF of PS3's launch titles were sports related games... while 3DS has what?  One?

Anyway the launch sales are starting to speak for themselves that the 3DS is in fact in higher demand than the PS3 was at launch, the price does need to come down for the long haul however, but overall the 3DS has had one of the best launches ever and some of the most appealing things to non gamers I have shown are in fact the built in games and applications much like Nintendo wanted.

OT: By your logic, then the Xbox360 was to be doomed liked the Dreamcast such as it being released a year before a Playstation and using last gen's disc format as the PS3 shouldve been similar to PS2.  But as you can see similarities dont always follow the same path.  Of course MS had way more money than Sega so 360 had a better to keep it surviving while Sega was like going broke since after the Genesis lol.