14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo is saying that, in its first week, the Nintendo DSi has sold more than 435,000 units in North America, which is pretty good considering that the previous model, the DS Lite, only sold around 226,000 units when it was initially put out in June 2006. That's almost double, and signals the fact that the DSi is shaping up to be one of the biggest hardware successes in the coming weeks and months.
Of course, Nintendo is not saying who are the people who have bought the DSi in such big numbers. It could be that those who have one of the original Nintendo DS consoles are now upgrading, because of the added cameras and because of the overall better hardware.
It could also be that people who are already owners of a Nintendo DS Lite are interested in getting a second handheld that would allow them to download new videogames via the Wi-Fi connection. There are also probably some new adopters, who see the Nintendo platform as a good mix between a gaming console and a picture-taking device.
Simple math shows that, if the rate of adoption is maintained, the DSi should boost overall sales for the Nintendo DS and could hand the Japanese hardware manufacturer another winner in the NPD hardware charts. The impact of the DSi will be influenced by the quality of the games delivered via the DSi Shop Channel and by the way developers will be able to take advantage of the twin cameras to create interesting and innovative gameplay.
If Nintendo manages to sell around 400,000 Nintendo DSi handhelds each week, then we could see around 16,000,000 of them sold by the end of 2009. If we take that number together with that of DS devices that are already used, then Nintendo could be close to putting one device in each house in North America by the end of 2010.