[quote name='lross']I would gladly take the bet on a re-design based off of historical data
History and Nintendo have proven, they will re-design and do it often. Look at the number of Gameboy's and DS' that have hit the market over the past 10 years.
GameBoy Systems - Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advanced, Gameboy Advanced SP, Gameboy Micro.
DS Systems - DS, DS Lite, DSi XL, 3DS, ??
Still feel like making a bet?
[/QUOTE]
I agree that under normal circumstances, Nintendo would churn out several 3DS redesigns to stimulate people "re-buying" the handheld (as they did with DS/DSLite/DSi/DSiXL). However, the 3DS did not sell at the release pricepoint well at all, and they had to slash the price to get them to move. Now that they lose money on every 3DS sold, I think it is very unlikely that they'll expend a large amount of money on a redesign; they just have nothing to gain from it right now, and would lose a lot more money than they already have (and piss off a lot of the early adopters of the 3DS). Nintendo is in a tough position right now; losing money on each 3DS, and watching declining sales of the older platforms (DS series and Wii). They bled out $2.5 billion of reserves in just one year; starting with $9.8 (!) billion, they are now down to $7.3 billion. They can certainly absorb more losses with those huge reserves still in place, but a 3DS redesign would just accelerate the losses, not slow them down.
And before people jump on me for not pointing it out; Sony is also losing huge sums of money, and are not in a good position at all right now. I do think the Vita is a much better designed device than the 3DS, but with its high price-point it may be a difficult product to sell in large quantities. Sony is certainly in trouble, and they aren't sitting on a big pile of cash reserves like Nintendo, even though that pile is shrinking pretty rapidly.
For Nintendo I think it comes down to the Wii U (or whatever they end up calling it); they are betting on that console to resurrect their profitability. If it doesn't, then Nintendo is going to have a rough time turning things around. A 3DS redesign, much as it is needed due to the poor original design (especially the missing 2nd analog nub), is just not going to help them in the short run.