Even if it'll be 'ready' for September or earlier, I can easily see Nintendo pushing it back to October/November to bump up its opening lineup to help it against 3DSing.
You know, there was a lot of "Nintendo is Doomed!" poo-pooing at the time, and the 3DS launch was bungled in some major ways (price being the main one). But, looking back, I think launching earlier was overall a pretty good strategy for Nintendo.
I'm no analyst, and titles like SM3DL and Mario Kart would have sold well regardless, but I don't think it's that outlandish to think that part of the reason those titles sold so explosively during the Holiday was because there were already a decent amount of 3DS' out there. Yeah - the hardware sales were nothing to write home about in the months leading up to November, but I'm sure it helped software move during the Holiday by establishing a user base of people hungry for some games.
I think there might be something to this idea of launching a console somewhat early, providing a handful of must-have titles, and slowly establishing a user base up to the holiday where you then blow the lid off with a ton of hot software. That way you already have a ton of people ready to snatch up tons of games, instead of just trying to sell a new console
and software at the same time.
I know
I'm more likely to buy more games when I already own the console. If I'm buying the console as well, I usually only have money to buy one or two games at first.