Nintendo, the Japanese group whose cartoony offerings dominate the global casual video games market, catering for the mass consumer, has launched a new version of its handheld DS console designed to compete in the iPhone era.

Equipped with a camera, internet browsing software, a larger screen than its predecessors and a variety of “lifestyle” accessories, the DSi is aimed at further expanding Nintendo’s four-year attempt to convert more adults into customers for its consoles.

For the first time in the company’s history, Nintendo has designed its new handheld machine to accept a standard piece of hardware — a removable SD memory chip of the sort used in digital cameras and PCs.

The DSi was an attempt by Nintendo to mount a challenge to Sony’s PSP, whose sales have been soaring at the expense of the DS, and which has secured a reputation as a more all-round entertainment device and a machine for serious gamers, said analysts. In keeping with Nintendo’s traditional way of entering the market at a relatively low price point, the machine will go on sale in Japan on November 1 at 18,900 yen (£100).

But in what one analyst in Tokyo described as a “truly disastrous bit of planning”, the new DSi machine will not go on sale in Britain, continental Europe or the United States in time for the critical Christmas shopping season. Nintendo fans outside Japan will have to wait probably until spring 2009 for the launch, and are likely to experience the usual shipment shortages that have dogged the release of new Nintendo products for decades.

“What could have been the must-have toy in a tough economic climate is not going to be on the shelves where it matters,” said Hiroshi Kamide, of KBC Securities.

He added that the pipeline of games for Nintendo’s Wii console was also looking weaker than might have been hoped as the games market builds up for its most important phase of the year. Although Nintendo used its Tokyo presentation yesterday to impress the domestic retail industry with several forthcoming Wii titles, the majority were of a type that has traditionally sold well in Japan but flopped overseas.

Nintendo was particularly keen to highlight the “defection” to their consoles of titles that had been exclusive to Sony’s platform. Capcom’s Monster Hunter 2 was a huge driver of sales of Sony’s PSP and became the platform’s first million-selling game. Monster Hunter 3 will be an exclusive for Nintendo.

But analysts were sceptical about Nintendo’s big in-house game for this autumn, Wii Music. The game, in yet another attempt by Nintendo to draw the family into a shared gaming experience, seeks to recreate the fun of playing instruments such as the sitar or the bagpipes, in a band. Veteran gamers suggested the game would hold people’s interest for only a limited time.

The DSi, meanwhile, appeared deliberately crafted to latch on to lifestyle trends identified by the games industry as sure-fire successes: cooking recipes, physical health, “brain-training”, karaoke and photography have all emerged as so-called “killer applications” in the casual gaming market. One accessory will be the “life rhythm meter” — a pedometer whose results are fed into a running daily assessment of the user’s health on the DS.

As well as photography studio games, the DSi will feature software that lets users produce short animations, which Nintendo expects to appeal strongly to the YouTube generation.

Times Recommends

• C&G axed - 1,660 jobs to be lost
• UK house prices rise 1.1% as buyers return
• Mixed reaction to US banks repaying bailouts