Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Nintendo DS sold 154.02 million units worldwide as of the 31st of March 2016, counting all models including the DS Lite and DSi. It was the best-selling Nintendo console until the Nintendo Switch surpassed it in 2025, and ranks as the third best-selling video game console of all time behind the PlayStation 2 and the Switch.
The Nintendo DS launched in North America on the 21st of November, 2004. It later launched in Japan on the 2nd of December 2004, in Australia and New Zealand on the 24th of February, 2005, and in Europe on the 11th of March, 2005.
The Nintendo DS Lite, released in Japan on the 2nd of March, 2006, is a slimmer redesign of the original DS with brighter screens and longer battery life. The top screen reached 200 cd/m2 brightness and the battery provided 15-19 hours of play, compared to roughly 10 hours on the original.
Nintendo developed the DS under company president Satoru Iwata, who succeeded Hiroshi Yamauchi in May 2002. Yamauchi proposed the dual-screen concept, and Iwata shaped it into a device aimed at non-traditional gamers using a touch-based interface.
The Nintendo DS used two 3-inch TFT LCD screens at 256 by 192 pixel resolution. It ran an ARM946E-S processor at 67 MHz and an ARM7TDMI at 34 MHz, with 4 MB of PSRAM as main memory and an 850 mAh battery rated at up to 10 hours.
Critic Jeremy Parish, writing for Polygon, stated the DS had "basically primed the entire world for" the iPhone, which launched in January 2007. In 2006, Nintendo reported that 44 percent of DS owners were female, showing the device had expanded gaming to non-traditional audiences before smartphones replicated that reach.