"If the eShop wants to suceed they need some non-game downloads"

No.....if the eShop wants to succeed people need to stop complaining and buy some frickin' games.

but they aren't handhelds so why would they be in competition with them? i'd rather use a 3DS, Vita, PSP, DS, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Colour and Gameboy, Wii, XBox360, PS3 or any other console than use my iPod touch or Smartphone for gaming. The only phone that can compete with all of those is the Sony Xperia Play. Nothing else comes close to a handheld except that.

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We don't have any games except for Let's Golf 3D, =/. So no we can't "frickin" buy any games cause they are none,
Please have some common sense next time you post.

To you.
To you, you are willing to carry more than one device. As am I.
We are not the majority however and most people, in North America at least, don't want to carry more then one device, and most people don't care about the gaming experience beyond cheap games like Angry Birds or Real Racing.
And considering the biggest selling apps on IOS are games, then obviously there's a lot of people that disagree that they aren't competition.
They are small electronic devices that go in your pocket and play games and other things. They are all competition.

And in my eyes, smartphones are making bigger strides in gaming then 3DS and any other "dedicated" gaming handheld.
As soon as I see the PSP, or Vita, or 3DS have full fledged MMOs or FPS games with large scale multiplayer games (I can see the vita doing this) with a pricing scheme that is pure win for consumers, then I will say dedicated devices are making bigger strides.

I'm not saying there's only room for one. Any form of competition has room for 2-4 things to compete. Apple, Sony and Nintendo can easily thrive regardless if they are all competing. Obviously one thrives more then the others, financially that is.

Long story short. They ARE competition, that's not bad thing. That's good actually if Nintendo is threatened. They make their best stuff when threatened. Look at Gamecube. Some amazing software there and new IPs.

I haaaate carrying around spoot loads of stuff. I can't fit a camera, an MP3 player, a cell phone, a 3DS, keys, and a wallet in my pockets. >.<

I really am getting tired of people saying the iPhone is just for Angry Birds.

Go into the darned App store. You' in for a surprise. There are some really, really good games in there. The reason the eShop is facing a challenge is that the developers and iPhone owners understand this. I have no idea how it's become a big secret when Nintendo fans are concerned, though.

Oh so eshop is just limited to 3DSware? Please have some common sense next time you post.

Meh, the Iphone is just for Angry Birds, Nintendo consoles are for kids, the PSP has nothing but crappy ports, the 360 is a shooterbox and the PS3 has no games... also PCs cost about four grand.

I think it's just that there are a lot of younger people on the site who can't afford iPhones, so they're not only ignorant about them (why bother when they can't afford it/parents won't drop the $100/mo. for an iPhone plan) and wouldn't benefit enough from the nongaming pda aspects to get a iTouch. You don't really need a PDA in high school - even college, depending on what you're studying (though, there are some sweet apps for foreign language/medical fields at least). Once they get out to higher education/workforce it'll start to make sense to them (including why maybe many people do have their gaming needs satisfied with Angry Bird type games - sometimes when you grow up, you don't have time for much else).

Now, if only the 3DS was actually trying to be a smartphone.

Stop putting systems in a box! Seriously. All those things you said aren't exactly true.

Defiantly agreed .

(Yes, but those look like crap on the 3DS. )And I was meaning 3DSWare, again.

I think it's pretty easy to say that "Lets Golf 3D" is only on 3DSWare?

Really, please you should have known that. :/

I don't agree....

I mean what non games could you download that would really be worth a tap? A bunch of notepads? A pedometer? A calculator?

No thanks, give me some great games instead.

The one thing that I would LOVE on my 3DS is a .pdf viewer. I would shell out $5, even $10, for my 3DS to have that compatibility.

Mario Massage - $3.99
The Legend of Coffee Makers - $6.99
Luigi's Pencil Sharpener - $2.99
Wario's Micro-Toaster - $5.99

@ToadFan: You'd be surprised. Plenty of DSiWare looks just fine on 3DS. Aura-Aura Climber, Blayzbloo, 99Bullets, Pro Jumper, X-Scape, Shantae, Cave Story, etc. You seem to be dismissing VC as well.

They need a Nintendo Life app.

meowth, that's right!

I can use my actual cell phone for features like an alarm clock, calculator, flash light, and any other goofy application to pass the time. Heck I use my phone to play some games to pass the time waiting for a text or sitting in the doctor's office waiting for my appointment. But I would just like to use my 3DS for gaming, and will use it for that reason until the day where I can play: Super Mario land 3D, paper mario, starfox 64 3D, LoZ OoT 3D, SSF4, mario kart 7, luigi's mansion 2, and receive 20 free games that originally was worth way more then like 99 cents. When that day comes, please inform me so I can get the phone that can do all of that.