Asriel on 29 August 2014
I'm not sure if stop-gap is the right term, because I doubt they were planning to release an entirely new handheld any time soon. A stop-gap measure to me would imply that Nintendo need more time to prepare a new generation of devices.
I do think some features are a test run for their next handheld--particularly improved online capabilities, improved (or new, I'm not clear on this) operating system, better Miiverse integration, MicroSD, more buttons, and built-in NFC support. Similar to the way the SD-card slot, flash memory and DSiWare on DSi was a test run for 3DS.
I think we'll see a new handheld in spring 2017.
