Nintendo earnings and profits in freefall

Nintendo has posted financial earnings for the nine-month period that ended December 31st, 2010, and it shows a company where earnings and profits are in freefall.

Here are the highlights (or low points):

• Earnings of 808 billion yen, down 31.7% from the same period in 2009
• Profits of 49.6 million yen, down 74.3% from the same period in 2009
• 15.7 million DS units, down from 23 million sold during the same period in 2009
• 13.7 million Wii units, down from 17 million sold during the same period in 2009

Nintendo isn't expecting things to get better over the remainder of the fiscal year. It expects revenues to be down 23.3% and for profits to fall by 60.6%

The only upside for Nintendo is that the company expects Wii software sales to be up 32 million units above the original estimates of 170 million unit sales. 

It seems that Nintendo is in desperate need of a new product to revitalize sales. The Nintendo 3DS, which is already for sale in Japan and due to hit shelves in the US and Europe in March, might help to do just that.

Thoughts? Does Nintendo need to revitalize its product lineup, or should it just release a selection of Mario games on the iPhone in the App Store?