Lack of money, interest in gaming, or general downturn are not the reasons I am not going to buy a 3DS for the foreseeable future. The 3DS does not have compelling games outside of nintendo staples (mario, zelda). The hardware itself is not compelling. Plenty of people do not give 2 shits about 3D gaming and I am one of those people.

It's hard to get excited for nintendo products. Excitement moves hardware and software.

Dedicated handhelds need to make the transition to being phones. This was Sony's biggest mistake with the Vita. It should have been slimmer and had phone capability. Charge 20-50$ more and it would have been amazing.

The 3DS had YoY growth last month, though. Things aren't as bad as some people would like to paint them as.

The 3DS really didn't have momentum over the holiday in the West. The reason is simple, there really was no huge blockbuster for it. Everything was released somewhat early on in Q4/3. (NSMB2 and Paper Mario.) I can see this year building a lot of momentum, though. Things aren't as peachy as some people want them to be, but they aren't all that horrendous. 

It is not doing as well as a normal ninty handheld should? Maybe the expected japan like numbers?

The 3DS with the exception of Japan is lacking momentum as Nintendo are the only ones supporting it. Western third-parties have significantly scaled down and are only concentrating on AAA games on the console market. As a result, the 3DS is effectively a Mario system in the Western hemisphere. In order for the 3DS to gain traction, Nintendo needs to actively release Japanese third party content to the West as Japanese studios seem reluctant to do so - releasing Bravely Default only won't cut it. Where is Dragon Quest VII, Fantasy Life and so forth? Nintendo, you got to bring your A game.

No. Xperia Play told us that this kind of model won't work. Dedicated handhelds need games, and the lack of them is, currently, Sony's biggest mistake with the Vita.

Xperia play is the opposite of what I'm referring to.
Have the game support of a dedicated handheld but just add phone.
Xplay was more about a phone that coild play games, and not particularly good ones.
Had xperia play been able to play psp games, things might have turned out a lot differently.

Then what would you want seriously? CLearly VITA as well isnt working and that is a traditional handheld. SO what will get you excited if it isnt the software.

they shouldnt jump the gun, this is not a bad point, IMHO its even worst for portables where people generally dont care about graphics jump for those anyway, at least not enough to make a huge difference.

OT maybe the expectations are too damn high?

Damn straight! Releasing AC:NL WW would have been great for 3DS sales!