my fear is that all the casual gamers will jump on board and sell the DS Lite they have for this. Nintendo will view it as a huge success and they will continue with baby steps and never release a real successor.
My fear is that this won't happen. Yes, this sounds pretty backwards, but I think the DS is in-stride right now. A ton of companies have signed on with it, they know how to use the hardware well, and are able to crank out quality games on a fairly quick and consistent basis. I'd much rather continue to receive excellent titles on a near-weekly basis than have to wait for a successor to eventually ramp up and reach the point the DS is at right now.
Realistically, what would the DS successor feature besides better graphics? Clearly that isn't a big enough draw or else the PSP would be far more successful than it currently is. DSiWare is a great new addition, and should make it
even quicker, and easier to produce great single serving games.
My concern is that the price point is too high to justify yet another DS purchase for many people, and as such it won't really catch on here. With the massive profits Nintendo has already seen with the DS, I fully expected a more reasonable DSi price (prior to its Japanese release).
I'm hoping the system won't really catch on at its stated price, and will drop down to something more reasonable ($130-$150).