Unless they can come up with a similar strategy as with Wii that actually works, then they should NOT go with the whole "Power is not important" route. Their brand needs some fixing, continuing to go this route is somewhat ruining it in the eyes of some people. Pointing out the Gamecube as "evidence" for why the shouldn't make competitive hardware is ridiculous, Gamecube's failure has NOTHING to do with the fact that it competed in terms of raw power. I think we should take in Iwata's words regarding "absorbing the Wii U architecture" to consideration. This could mean that they want to create a platform development environment where they can successfully go through the transition from Wii U to (insert future console) in a safe and easy manner, maybe even have late-gen titles from Wii U ported to (insert console).
Iwata also mentioned that the "number of form factors" may also increase, this could mean many things. It's not clear if the form factors will be integrated, so they may still be named something completely different and may perhaps have different games (which they should do). It's also possible for the "number of form factors" to mean that each of the handheld and console has maybe different specs, like both a "cheap" and "deluxe" model for both the handheld and console. Maybe the cheaper handheld will be priced reasonably like $129.99 at half the raw power of Wii U, with the "deluxe" model being more expensive with maybe more raw power, at $199.99 for those who want prettier graphics. To keep costs down, it'll probably have an 854 x 480 screen, same resolution as the Gamepad. The same idea applies with the console, a $249.99 "cheap" model, roughly the same performance as PS4, maybe a bit better, and a more "deluxe" model at $349.99 closer to the power of PS5/X2. They're not interested in harddrives and such, so I don't think the differentiating factor of each model will be simply hard drive space. Porting from handheld to console will be relatively easy, porting from console to handheld will probably be a bit more difficult, but if the development environment is similar, they could use similar ideas from a particular console game and create a new handheld game using that same engine and groundwork. If the engines are flexible and easily scalable, then this could work out well.
Or maybe not, they'll just release a handheld and a console. The handheld can release first, maybe announcement next year and release in 2016, 5 years after the 3DS released. From then on, they'll already have a development environment similar enough to Wii U that they can port from the Wii U to the handheld, or they'll essentially have a "head start" in terms of development, where they won't need to learn a completely different type of architecture. If it's unified shaders, then it'll be unified shaders, it won't be the differences that had arisen which each of their previous console transitions. With newer technologies like with AMD regarding Graphics Core Next and such, sure they'll learn some new stuff, but it won't be the drastic differences like it was with transitioning from Wii to Wii U. They'll use a similar architecture for the console when that launches later (albeit, more powerful) and they'll continue on from there. With combining their handheld and console sectors, they'll be able to asist one-another much easier as long as they remain consistant with their main goal. But, that doesn't mean that we'll see Mario Kart 9 for both Nintendo Fusion DS and Nintendo Fusion Console, because that'll limit the potential of sales boosts for both the console and handheld from the popular franchises, and I'm sure Nintendo wouldn't want to essentially throw away that free money. If someone buys the 4DS for Mario Kart, then they'll probably not go out and by a console for the same exact game with prettier visuals, so I think it's not a very good idea to have the exact same game (with performance differences) launching at the same time for both consoles. Mario Kart 9 for 4DS in 2017/2018, and Mario Kart 10 for the console in 2019/2020.
This idea of a "hybrid" handheld that "docks" to the TV (through a "console" that the handheld attaches to) doesn't make sense in my opinion. Unless they find a way to sell enough of these "hybrids" to compensate for their revenue of BOTH console and handheld sales (including games, systems, accessories, etc), that's not gonna happen, they're not going to kill off essential revenue streams.
