http://www.cnet.com/news/miyamoto-were-on-to-the-3ds-successor/

OFC they will...

From new interview with Reggie:

Q: Everyone expected the handheld business to die because of mobile phones and tablets.

A: That clearly has not happened.

Q: Are they still a big threat?

A: What we’re seeing from consumers is that they want a fun experience, and there’s a certain amount of fun that you can have on a smart device. But more and more consumers are seeing that the depth of game play is so much better with a dedicated handheld, and we’re the dedicated handheld of choice.

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/brierdudley/2014/06/11/e3-nintendo-boss-on-wii-u-beating-xbox-and-playstation/

Does Pokemon still exist? Then there will be another handheld.

That's the problem, they definetly wont surpass gba sales. I even have a hard time imagining 3ds selling 60M units+ meaning the 3DS will be by far the worst selling Nintendo handheld ever.

It's certainly going to sell 60 Million, but the problem here is definitely if it's going to outsell the GBA or not. The GBA is technically the lowest selling Nintendo Handheld ever, and a downward trend in Nintendo's best-selling platform is not a good thing.

It's currently at around 43M units sold and it's on track to sell 7.5m-8m units this year which would put it at around 50M units and we know how quickly Nintendo handhelds decline in terms of sales once they announce the successor which you can definetly expect them to do in 2015. So where are they going to get these other 10million units sales? If it sells 8m units this year, then you can definetly expect it to sell no more then 5m units in 2015 and then it's going to crash and burn from there in terms of sales.

EDIT: The only way that I can see them changing the sales trajectory for 3ds is with a superior redesign that could justify an upgrade for current owners and that could potentially reach to the consumers who weren't interested in the 3ds family.

Well, for one, I expect it to outpace your prediction for 2014 sales due to it most likely being extremely back-loaded with most of it's games coming in the next few months rather than spread throughout the year like last year. I also expect Nintendo to announce a re-design, which you say is the only way to change it's fate.

If Nintendo is able to have a good release schedule for next year while also securing much needed exclusives like Dragon Quest XI then it should be able to surpass your highest prediction of 60 Million for sure.

I completely disagree that they are definetly going to announce a successor in 2015, why would they? In their market they are #1 and it was not long ago they brought the current system into profitability, expect 3 more years out of the 3ds before you hear a whisper of a successor

They will give up on consoles before they give up on the handheld. That's the hill they will die on if it ever comes to that.

That said I think you will be able to share TV/"console" games on the handheld next gen.