December 01, 2004 - Only a week on the market, and Nintendo's dual-screen handheld is a huge success...at least according to the company and its sales numbers. Since its debut on November 21, the Nintendo DS is reporting sell-through numbers of more than 500,000 units, more than 90 percent of the current stock of systems in stores. So if you're having a hard time finding a unit to buy, that's a pretty darn good reason why it's so.

Nintendo compares the huge number of Nintendo DS numbers to that of the immensely popular Apple iPod MP3 player -- the company expects to hit the million Nintendo DS system mark by the end of this year in North America alone, a number that took Apple 19 months to hit with its audio player.

On the other side of Nintendo's handheld fence is the Game Boy Advance and its still-stunning sales numbers. Even with the Nintendo DS stealing all of its media thunder, the Game Boy Advance has sold through more than 800,000 units of GBA and GBA SP systems last week.

Combine the two systems into a 1.3 million count, and it's a new Nintendo handheld one-week sales record for the company.

"Consumers have voted the Nintendo DS as the hot item this holiday, so if you see one, you'd better buy it," says Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing. "Nintendo owns the hand-held market, and once again we're the hit of the holiday season."