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Shoppers spent Thanksgiving week stuffing their shopping bags with Nintendo hardware, setting the stage for 2004 to be the year of the hand-held holidays. Shoppers snapped up more than 500,000 Nintendo DS systems during Thanksgiving week, representing more than 90 percent of all units available in stores across the United States.

With Nintendo DS sales moving faster than anticipated, some locations have reported sellouts, and Nintendo predicts the initial North American supply will be depleted within days. As additional shipments are rushed to stores by this weekend to meet the demand, Nintendo expects to sell 1 million Nintendo DS units in North America alone by the end of 2004 - a mark that took Apple's iPod 19 months to achieve.

"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."