Compact, portable and is in my pocket or bag on every trip (I have to take it out of my bag when school is in session, do I teach or play games? Sometimes a tough decision. *wink*). Yes, there is a lot of "shovelware" and games for children, but that's probably true for PCs too. It's the downside of popularity in game systems.

Again, Nintendo has given consumers a lower power (but great battery life!) system. It gets the job done. Keep in mind that it has two processors...one for each screen. Touch game play is very responsive and does not hinder game interaction. Definitely for those of a more "casual" game genre, but some decent turn based strategy, FPS, and point and click games for the more "mature".

The ability to auto pause a game by just closing it is perfect to mobility, especially for those who have to commute, play a little during breaks, etc.

Comparisons to the PSP are usually negative when it comes to graphics and such, but it's about gameplay. and what games you enjoy. Some great games on the PSP, but battery life is a lot lower..and isn't that the point of being mobile?

The price is much lower than a PSP so, mobile gaming come cheaper.

A couple things that would make it even better IMHO. Some of these have been added with the creation of the DSi, so they may be a moot point now. Unfortunately, what I feel the DSi fixes, it destroys the possibility of other ideas.

1. A web browser add on that was strictly text (i.e. lynx for those that remember). The processors are relatively slow, so trying load an standard web page is way to slow to be useful. A text only with links that allow individual views of images on the pages would have been better. The DSi has the brower embedded and it is a bit faster, but still slow. Or if it could default to mobile versions of sites. That would be good too.

2. Music/video - Nintendo could have allowed a slot 1 or 2 cart with memory space for either of these years ago. With the iPod Nano, I think it's proven that people don't mind viewing videos on small screens for short periods of time. Music too. Homebrew has shown us that these work (to some extent) and could have been profitable for Nintendo. Again, the DSi now allows music via the SD card slot (awesome) and I've heard rumors of video coming. I would have liked them to offer that on the DS (lite) but it looks like that's not going to happen.

3. Other Uses (not just games) - Nintendo doesn't like to make their machines multi-use...but that's the direction things are going, and other companies are doing well with that paradigm. Slot 2 input could have offered many different things. GPS would have been awesome. With a mic and speakers it could have offered turn by turn and voice control. keyboard for email. A simple email client would have been great, or even internet chat...more than just the local DS chat, which is pretty much worthless. With the DSi, this option doesn't exist anymore unless they can fit it into slot 1 or the SD card.

In short, I would suggest a DS lite or DSi to anyone who wanted strictly fu, mobile gaming.