New Nintendo handheld announced next year?

Bloomberg.com have reported on comments by analyst of the Nikki exchange Soichiro Fukuda about Nintendo’s future. One of these specific comments was;

Nintendo may announce a model change for its DS handheld video-game players in June next year, triggering an improvement in the company’s earnings

This can be construed like some reporting outlets have as a DSi like enhancement to the system for a small time gain in sales that happened in similar revisions in the past with both the DSlite and DSi. But as I have personally commentated on I firmly believe this as an expectation of a new handheld device coming from Nintendo to replace the DS. Announced in 2003 and released in 2004 the DS has now been on the market for almost 5 years, if this announcement goes down in June or anytime during 2010 the likely release date will be late 2010 going into 2011 or later, this would mean that the DS has been available of more than 6 years. For comparison sake the Gameboy advance launched in 2001, through 2 redesigns (SP and Micro) the Advance was available on market for 3 years before another device was launched and was available for sale on market up until 2006 if my memory serves me correct.

The Next Generation – Nintendo’s Hardware Attitudes

As I was discussing with a friend on Live Messenger today, the consumer or hardcore consumer knew much more about the Wii before anything was known about the system. All we had to do was to look at the attitudes being adopted and implemented in the new at the time Nintendo DS. Nintendo did not push the graphical power of the DS as it implemented a 3d chip that was as powerful as the 64bit era and it also included the chip that made the Gameboy 2d graphics as a security measure, they were using tried, tested and reliable hardware and architecture. They brought about innovation through their “New Play Control”, and they tip toed onto the online gaming scene with an overly cautious system. Now with hindsight, are all these sounding familiar. Wii hardware is related to an overclocked and slightly enhanced for security Gamecube system, we have innovation through a “New Way To Play” and they slightly enhanced but not as much as touted their baby steps into the online gaming scene retaining their overly cautious system.