I'm curious, does anyone know what the IR port is currently used for, and what it will be used for in the future?

I have heard Skylanders (the Spyro game) uses it, but beyond that, I have no idea. I'm guessing it will have a use in a future Pokémon game to avoid having an IR blaster directly in the cartridge like with Pokémon HgSs/BW/B2W2. I remember the Game Boy Color only really used it for Mystery Gift in Pokémon GSC.

Isn't it also used to link the 3DS to the Circle Pad Pro? That way you can really awkwardly jam a 3DS XL into it and get it to work. Not that it's possible to play that way.

Also, I remember the GBC one also being used for some card-swapping feature in the Pokémon TCG game.

Maybe the IR port is one of those features developers completely forgot about and, therefore, didn't make their games have a use for it. Or maybe the lesser known games on the 3DS use the IR port and nobody knows because the games are lesser known.

Circle Pad Pro does indeed use the Infared for connection. Other than that, I got nothing. When I first saw it I was hoping it would be used in a similar way to Pokémon Black and White with the instant trading of Friend Codes and maybe Miis and such. (I wonder if they can give an update for that in the future.) I'm hoping that it can be used as a type of controller for the Wii U with it, even though it's kind of small. And hopefully some more games will find interesting ways to use it like Pokémon did without having to put it in the cart. More accessories!