Joystiq has announced that EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich has predicted that Nintendo will announce its new handheld device in 2010 and it will be the DS2. The DS2 will of course be the upgraded version of the current DS.

Furthermore, Divnich believes that the product will be released within fifteen months. “one of the biggest reasons for Nintendo’s success in the handheld market is their ability to remove opportunity gaps for competitors to enter,” says Divnich, citing the early release of the DS, which effectively stymied the chances for the PSP a year later. Other reasons to release new hardware include the increasing threat of piracy and the specter of declining support from publishers (Ubisoft, for example, has announced plans to scale back support for Nintendo platforms).