Now Nintendo America expects 3DS in 2011

As our retail panel predicted, it’s looking increasingly likely that Europe and now US won’t get the Nintendo 3DS until 2011.

Earlier this week we detailed UK retailer expectations that the device will most likely arrive around February 2011priced just shy of 200.

Last night, Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime appears to have made a similar confirmation on date.

Appearing on the Jimmy Fallon talk show, he remarked that the device was due to arrive "next year".

Until now, all Nintendo has said on the record is that the device will arrive by the close of its fiscal year, which ends in March 2011.

But many have hoped one or two territories – most likely the US and Japan, as with the original DS launch – would get the handheld device in time for Christmas, and help drive Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s plan to quickly hit an installed base of millions.

As we reported two weeks ago, the 3DS is Nintendo’s latest handheld – it features a 3D display that doesn’t require stereoscopic glasses to view it, new motion-sensing tech, the usual touch screen display plus new online features.