I think GBA probably would've finished around 115 million LTD had the DS not launched so early to combat the PSP.

GBA was a *monster seller* in the US in particular. Just a beast. I believe it still is the fastest selling platform in US history (out of the gate). 

You say 100 million.. like it's noyhing..  100 mill would be insane

Ontopic:

I think 3DS is a big succes..  Everyone could see (and knew) that "smartphone gaming" would make it imposible for a dedicated handheld console.. to reach DS numbers ever again (at least like the marked is know.. if the dedicatet becomes a phone to.. or Nintendo make some special handheld for china.. it may could happen.. but not like things look now)

So I don't think we should look at last gen that much.. this is a new time.. and "touch generation" all have smartphones now.

That DS still can  reach GBA.. is insane (if you asked pather few years back)

If we look at competition.. and marked share.. 3DS is even more "dominant" than DS was

And the fat lady hasen't song yet..

And?

Not yet, but she might be warming up if kids don't stop playing tablet/smartphone games. 

I'm in a lot of airports for flights, man the 3DS/Vita aren't even remotely competetive with tablets/phones from the families I see, every kid is playing some smartphone game, I rarely see any dedicated handhelds anymore. 6-7 years ago I'd see a good number of kids with DS', not anymore. 

Even more disturbingly (for traditional game makers I guess) is I'm starting to see more and more kids with their own tablets, as in multiple per family. The family sitting across from me in my last flight from Germany to Canada, both of the two little girls had their own tablet with a bunch of games on them. 

Yes.. People are afraid of looking like a geek sitting/standing with a vita or 3ds.. (in denmark)  atleast the kids i know.. but most of them still has 3DS at home. 

A lot of people forget that DS had a rough start, too. It launched with a port of Mario 64 with a thumb attachment that went over the end of your thumb, meant to rub the bottom screen as a virtual joystick.

It was really not until 2006 when New Super Mario Bros. launched alongside the DS Lite, that the system began to experience a sales trajectory that no other handheld had ever experienced before. Of course, Nintendogs and Brain Age, among others, also made an enormous difference, and contributed to the DS selling to people who normally did not ever play video games.

To compare DS to 3DS is to neglect to take into account the extreme market forces that have changed the entire industry. The bottom of the handheld market is gone, completely gone. Lost forever to free-to-play games on mobile. The middle of the market is vanishing as we speak, and at this point only extremely attractive AAA software is selling on handhelds. When I say handhelds, I'm basically talking only about 3DS. As PS Vita is dead everywhere except in Japan, where handhelds are far more dominant than consoles. But that is another topic in and of itself.

This sort of goes back to one of the points made in the OP, that 3DS hardware is down significantly from DS, yes. That is to be expected. The real concern however, is that software sales are so low. 3DS has a fairly low attach rate, particularly when you consider that it's primarily marketed and aimed at core gamers.

I could keep going on and on, but I'll leave it there for the moment. Hopefully I've contributed something meaningful to the discussion.

Undoubtedly yes.
It did not bring 3D to the masses. It did not expand Nintendo's handheld market but shrunk it.
It did kill off the Vita though, so I guess Nintendo succeeded with a third of what they built the device for.

Not even a little. Is it as successful as the DS? No, but no handheld ever has been. The 3DS is doing quite remarkable for a market dominated by tablets and phones.

It's a success.  The ds was an apparition.  But the world has now changed and I think the 3ds is a success and is proving there is still a massive market for Nintendo.  Since the game boy advance Nintendo has faced all kinds of new competition but they've emdured and are still at the gameboy advance level of success.

these threads are becoming a little spammy. is _ a failure? i mean.

but no. 3ds is not a failure. it will probably sell as much as, or a bit less than, the gba. good enough for me, and certainly for nintendo. nintendo's making absurd amounts of money on that overpriced hardware. think about it. 3ds is 1.33 of a psp in terms of power and it's priced the same as the vita. it is absolutely demolishing the vita in sales. and it's the software. i can't think of the last system that had as good a year, software-wise, as 3ds did in 2013. maybe the dreamcast in 2000.