Midna said:That's the point. I know, but because of the name, others don't.
Advertising (lots of it) will take care of that. To me the LOOK (not the name) makes it look like a revision, but consider this:
1) Nintendo will really sell the 3D aspect of it all (in advertising and press). There will be no doubt it's a new system by this feature alone.
2) Personally I think Nintendo need to redesign it to be rounder and more comfortable and more distinctive-looking compared to what came prior, but I doubt they will.
3) If Nintendo can release something like the Wii (almost everyone saw this as an incredibly bad name at release) then the 3DS has no problem whatsoever getting across any message it wants to. I think it's quite a clever name with worldwide appeal (long English names mean nothing to the rest of the world) and they aren't going to change it.
Going back to Game Boy would be a bad move, but even that is very accepted now and has been for years.
Basically, 3DS is possibly the best name of any hardware product they have released, I reckon.