Close on the heels of Sony's announcement of a 50-million unit sales of PlayStation Portable handheld game-players, Nintendo has announced a 100-million units shipment of Nintendo DS handhelds ever since its 2004 launch. The company said that it shipped the 100-millionth unit on March 6.

No less astounding is the success of Nintendo's games software. As per the company, 83 games of the handheld game-players have crossed the 1-million shipment mark - with seven of them topping even the 10-million mark!

The landmark handheld-sales figures achieved by the Japanese Nintendo come from the combined sales of the original DS, the DS Lite and the camera-equipped DSi, which will be released in the US on April 5. Supported by a better mechanism for buying games at a store, the DSi been designed to compete with the iPhone.

Initially when the bulky DS handheld was launched, it was an under-performer as compared to the Sony PSP, also launched in 2004. However, the tables turned in favor of Nintendo when it shipped a chartbuster game - Nintendogs - which was designed by mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto. The game took off with a bang, reviving the game market for handhelds, and reaching out to a much bigger audience than merely the hardcore gamers.

Further, with the 2006-launch of Nintendo DS Lite, the company pulled way ahead of Sony!