The Nintendo DSi, released in the month of April, is set to increase the sales of the Nintendo made handheld by more than 175% year over year, which is quite the performance, says industry analyst Mike Hickey, who is working for Janco Partners.

One of the reasons is the increased price of the Nintendo DSi, which makes the device bring in more revenue than the previous DS Lite, but the sales volumes are also said to be higher.

Apparently, the new handheld should increase hardware sales for the month of April by 25%, while the software revenue should decline by 20% over the same period in 2008 mainly because no games on the magnitude of Grand Theft Auto IV or Mario Kart Wii has been released this year. Other analysts are saying that the decline in the NPD Group numbers for April could be us much as 17%.

The Nintendo DSi ditches the Game Boy Advance slot in favor of adding two cameras, one of which is always trained on the person using the device. The game screens are also a bit bigger and the battery a little better, making the device more interesting to gamers than the DS Lite.

Another of the advantages of the new version of the console is the fact that Nintendo is offering games and other programs for it via digital distribution, which means that players can get games without the need of a physical cartridge.

Players can now purchase DSi Points that they can then spend on the DSi Shop Channel to get the latest releases, which Nintendo puts out on a weekly basis. Some gamers hope that Nintendo will soon introduce a service similar to the Virtual Console for the Nintendo Wii allowing access to Game Boy videogames.