I am sure Nintendo are working on a new version but at present no point in releasing it any time soon, every year so far the DS Lite has constantly sold out towards X-Mas with everyone rushing out to look for one (this applies to the PSP as well) and also the Nintendo Wii.

I remember when I got the Nintendo Advance only for the SP to be launched a month later...My fault for not checking gaming sites back then but what if everyone go buys this DS Lite before X-Mas only for the new version to be released in Jan 09?

That's just a screen. There is no console around it from what I can see.

The new DS is rumoured for release in JAPAN before Xmas, not the UK, Europe or other territories.

Don't forget, the japanese market have had the DS/DSlite for longer and that sales in that region have slowed somewhat in recent months with the PSP taking over the weekly sales lead for a time.

I believe this rumour, but I don't think the design will alter that much.

Actually, you're pretty much wrong there, the DS lanched in the US first as they wanted it to get to market in time for Thanksgiving, a nice little fact I took advantage of as I was on holiday in the US at the time. I'm pretty sure a similar thing happened for the DS Lite, too, though I think that was more a case of only a few days ahead of Japan.

Japan doesn't celebrate Christmas, they do have a holiday a week or two later, however, which does involve giving presents and Nintendo have used this later holiday, along with the much earlier Thanksgiving, to justify the earlier release outside of Japan of the systems.

You are correct about the closely matched sales of the DS and PSP in Japan, though, and this is probably the driving force behind this possible update. Don't dismiss a Western Christmas release, though, as there is also a Nintendo press conference in San Francisco tomorrow, to follow the one in Japan. Thankfully, we won't have to wait for the SF press release to find out what's going on!

Well. if you re-read me, I didn't say that the DS or DS Lite were out in Japan 1st, just that they had had it longer - I had meant to say longer [than the UK] - as a direct response to SS4. I'll try to clearer in the future :)

I didn't realise that the Japanese ignored Xmas though.

Nor was I aware of the SF conference, I'd only read about the Japanese release aspects of this rumour.

We'll all know soon enough I guess.