According to industry analyst Mike Hickey, the Nintendo DSi is set to improve the sales of Nintendo-made handhelds by as much as 175% year after year. Though the percentage may seem a bit abstract, this is actually a dramatic increase considering that means it will almost double every single year.

The Nintendo DSi is the latest in the iteration of Nintendo’s handheld line and improves on the DS Lite model in many different ways. The screens, both of them, are just slightly bigger and the GBA slot has been removed in favor of slimming the whole thing down and adding a SD card slot. Though this may seem like a hindrance in that it precludes all GBA games and anything that utilizes the slot for peripherals, like Guitar Hero, the DSi has a few things up its sleeve. Beyond that, there is also a pair of cameras on the DSi, one pointing out and one pointing in when you have the handheld open and on.

With the addition of a web browser and DSi points there has been some speculation as to the use of a Virtual Console much like the Wii. That would mean old Game Boy games, like the original Zelda for the regular Game Boy or Pokemon Gold and Silver, coming back for a repeat performance. Nothing has been said as of yet about this possibility, but the layout of the DSi’s menu is strangely reminiscent of the Wii’s.

While the DSi is supposed to boost the hardware sales numbers for April by 25% or more, the revenue for game sales, software, is suspected to have declined just as much without any major releases. Hopefully this trend is reversed as we come up to E3 and beyond.