my sister's baby's nany, who's a 50 year old illegal alien from the philipines, saw my 3DS and said "oh it's the new one", and when I offered to show her a picture on it she said "but you need glasses no?".

So the misconception in this example is not that it's a new one (commercials have this pegged), it's that people don't understand that it's glassesless 3D...

and no she's not a gamer, her previous kids in care had the other DS, and she saw this on TV.

I like how you mention the fact that she's a 50 year old illegal alien from the philipines, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of your post or the thread.

OP: Meh, I still think the 3DS will be ok after a pricecut. It is true that some people believe it is just a new model of the regular DS, though. My gf did.

Please don't bite my head off for saying so, but foreign parents in general know way less than non-foreign parents.  For the record, my parents are foreign.  It's not like this across the board, I realize I'm generalizing, but my foreign friends parents and/or my parents foreign friend usually know nothing about video games.  While my friends with canadian background's friends have a rough idea about video games.

Also working in electronics sales I spent a lot more time, a lot more often explaining things like PSPs and DSs to people with foreign parents than non-foreign parents.

I'm really not worried ...

People forget that the DS did not sell particularly well initially, and it wasn't until the first hardware revision and the release of several important games that its sales really started to explode. Outside of a "coolness factor" to own one early, there really is no point to owning one yet and that will likely change when some more games come out.

Beyond that, I do think there are probably some people who are waiting for details about the NGP prior to buying a 3DS; and in many cases I think they are holding off on a delusional belief that the NGP will be cost competitive with the 3DS. If you look at how exchange rates have changed around 2/3 to 3/4 of the price increase of the 3DS (relative to the DS) could be explaned by echange rate changes; and the other 1/4 to 1/3 might be a buffer protecting against exchange rate changes in the future. In a couple months I expect that the same people who piss and moan about the 3DS being $250 will be the same people who are claiming that $400 (or more) is justified for the NGP; but the vast majority of people holding out to see what was offered by the NGP will discount it as a purchase at that point.

Agreed.  I wasn't really following the 3DS development to close but I'm pretty avid gamer and I come on here often and even I more or less assumed it was a new variant of the DS.  As the PSPGo was to the PSP.  I only realized it was a new platform about a month before it's release.

I'm not flamebaiting but a huge chunk of the DS's buyers are children between 6-14.  I worked electronics thoughout college and I know what it's like to be a parent shopping for video games for their children.  I could easily see parents trying to talk there children down from a 3DS to a DSi or even a DS becasue they assume it's just a fancier trim.

Don't worry, I didn't find it offensive, just funny.
I understand that people who migrate abroad have other concerns above videogames, it makes sense.

ah but she's not a parent ^^.

i pointed it out as it's an unlikely profile for a gamer, so unlikely to be informed out of interest. it seemed relevant to me at least :p