If the 3ds is the only handheld console that is 'fading out fast', then nintendo is doing something wrong.
BUT, theres also the PSVita which is currently like 1/10 of how much the psp sold.

So this means that, smartphones have taken a M A double S I V impact to the psvita and 3ds.

Society continues to change.

Nothing surprising. 3DS should be happy to end around 65M-70M ltd.

Yep, I don't think there's any other explanation than although Nintendo managed to hold onto more of their audience due to huge handheld franchises like Pokemon and Monster Hunter, Smartphones have really carved out a huge piece of the portable gaming market.

I honestly expect the upcoming micro consoles to start doing the same in the next few years to the home market.

Behold the rise of the smartphone

To be honest I kinda wonder if Nintendo wouldn't just be better off releasing a gaming Android tablet with their own eShop (ala what Amazon does with their Kindle tablets).

Something with a ARM CPU + cheap mobile GPU like a Snapdragon 800 + the 3DS GPU could play DS/3DS software + tons of Android games apps.

Nintendo could allow all Android apps like Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps, Chrome, Youtube, Video Player, etc. but pick and choose the top 20 smartphone games and maybe charge an extra licensing fee for those games (so they get a $1-$2 cut/download).

$199.99 for the tablet
$2-5 for Virtual Console games (NES/GB-N64/GBA), $2-$5 for smartphone games, $24.99 for 3DS games, $14.99-$24.99 for DS back catalog games.

NFC support for Amiibos of course.

PSV is not 1/10 of PSP currently, it's slightly above that and its time on the market cannot compare to the same time PSP needed to achieve 80-something millions.

But anyway, I'm not saying PSV is doing well, what I want to say is that smartphone/tablet gaming hurts both handhelds, unlike some here that rather believe it only affects Vita because it's the one handheld with less 1st party support, but let me tell you one thing: nowadays more and more people rather buy tablets & smartphones, spending their money just once than buying a dedicated videogaming machine that needs to later buy games and adons for it. For those parents it's just the smartest move to make and kids that never experienced anything else won't care. For hardcore gamers that already got contact with handhelds, they will keep buying them and that's where most hardware numbers are coming from I think.

It also introduced it at a much more family friendly price point last christmas opening the 3DS up to a much bigger market.

According to Shadow in the NPD thread, 3DS is down 16% YOY in Q1-Q3. That's not really fading nearly as fast as u make it out to be

It wasn't selling that great last year either, people just didn't want to hear it and kept saying "Pokemon X/Y and 2DS will cause sales to explode in November, you can't judge it now!". 

Iwata called last holiday the worst ever for Nintendo since he's been president, a lot of that was on the 3DS ... I was saying it last year, the system was not gaining ground the way it should've been despite having a lot of good games. It's just not gaining any traction. 

The problem with this year is they *need* North America to be up YoY because Japan is down badly. They can't afford to have any slippage in North America and Europe at all this year. 

EDIT: Pretty sure that 16% figure is also wrong too. Sales for the 3DS are down YoY 25% roughly through June from that leak of NPD numbers we got and in the months since I believe the gap has expanded further even. 

Well maybe u should rename ur thread because fading fast means that the 3DS is declining at a very rapid rate, which it is not. I don't have time too look up all NPD threads but according to VGchartz, 3DS sold 3.6-4.1 million in 2011, 2012 & 2013. That's pretty consistent and thru 3 quarters it is down 16% YoY, that doesn't seem too odd for a device's 4th year.