DSi LL Was Almost Called 'DSi Executive'

[wraggster]

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Other names batted around for the big-screen handheld: "DSi Comfort," "DSi Premium," and "DSi Living." And Shigeru Miyamoto proposed "DSi Deka." that's according to the latest Iwata Asks roundtable, discussing the DSi LL.

There are more fun facts from this talk (translated from Japanese; the English transcript is not up yet.) Evidently Nintendo had been working on a DS Lite with 3.8 inch screens (the LL's are 4.2 inches, the Lite's are 3 inches, DSi is 3.2). It backed off because of manufacturing cost and the success of the regular flavor DS Lite. It sounds like they also wanted to do a simultaneous release of the DSi and DSi LL but it never came together.

http://kotaku.com/5426384/dsi-ll-was-almost-called-dsi-executive

[Qmark]

Or could it be that DSi isn't selling as well as expected?
Why haven't the DSL/DSi numbers ever been separated?

I'd venture the guess DSi is selling quite well in gadget-hungry Japan, but largely stagnant everywhere else, particularly in the USA, where it's a 'lost' product between better cameras, better app-stores, and the DS's we already have.
Really, DSi is just a lesser case of PSP-Go Syndrome: It's more money for a less-useful (for anyone who still plays GBA games) and likely redundant device, all for the 'privilege' of being able to "purchase" (non-transferable) downloadable content.

However, making one with bigass screens makes it novel enough to be interesting.