IMO Nintendo has a number of issues they need to address and they can potentially lay some ground work this generation. Online can be vastly improved to meet a similar standard to what Sony and Microsoft provide, tbh that's something that can be constantly evolved all of the time, but from what I hear it needs a big boost to match what the other platform holders provide.
The biggest factor that effects Nintendo's image in the community (both gamers and developers) is that the exclusives they have on their platform don't appeal to the wider audience that buys all of the 3rd party titles.
In short the line-up needs added diversity beyond what Nintendo and any of their partners provide.
The only way that Nintendo can make this happen is to make a lot more partnerships with new external studios and/or expand their own 1st party developer line-up.
Power is important, as is ease of development, great online too, but without developers that release games that drive all kinds of customers to your platform, outside of Nintendo's current wheelhouse then you can't expect the wider community that has become accustom to getting the fix that the 3rd party titles offer on a Nintendo system and if there's nothing in the way of exclusives that appeal to the audience that buys 3rd party then you can't expect the publishers or developers that make those games to make a Nintendo console version or take advantage of that system's hardware.
Sony and Microsoft have been laying that groundwork from the very first day they stepped into the console market, Nintendo have taken several steps back in the eyes of 3rd party and Nintendo only has themselves to blame for this.
To be honest this obsession with a tiny form factor kills the performance potential, the obsession with constant supposed innovation that gets in the way of the pure gaming experience of a decent box, needs to stop, they have all of the tools they need, they can always create new peripherals to innovate later, but gamers don't want overly complicated boxes or control schemes, they want the basics and comfort.
If you come up with something interesting and innovative that is unobtrusive later on, then make a new peripheral that can add to the experience, with good software support for that later.
Now as for the title topic, Nintendo won't have a clue when Sony or Microsoft are launching their next consoles, so they have play by their own timeline as far as product development goes. The process of developing a games console takes time, but if they're willing to go bigger on the form factor and release at a time when a new architecture or some tech that will make for a quantum leap in performance is mature enough within the market to be cost effective then IMO that's when they should begin manufacturing their next machine.
In 2015 Universal Memory may become a reality (at least within the server market), which means no more need for DRAM for system memory, basically it's solid state memory, with superior speeds to DRAM.
If that doesn't pan out Samsung are beginning to make stacked DDR4 for the server market this year, by 2016 this will probably begin to filter down into the PC market, by 2016 we're talking mutiple Terabytes Per Second of Bandwidth for probably pretty reasonable cost.
AMD will have their Zen line of CPU cores dropping in 2016.
High Broadband Memory will be stacked on Processor Dies (AMD's own R9 390X GPU is rumored to feature this technology for a crazy improvement in memory bandwidth), so the next Nintendo console could be the 1st to use super fast memory built onto an AMD APU (given that AMD has all but confirmed they're working with one partner looking to make a new console).
Basically we don't need to look at Sony or Microsoft's potential schedules for releasing their next consoles, we should be looking at when new technological developments in Processor and Memory technologies are available from the suppliers that Console Platform Holders buy from.
If people are saying that 2016 could be when Nintendo unveils their next console it's because that's when a lot of revolutionary, new processor and memory technologies are likely to become available to them.
A 2017 release would basically fit with some stellar tech developments going on in the industry and 3rd party developers would be developing new game engines to take advantage of this new tech, so if Nintendo lays the groundwork of building better online and most importantly expanding their developer base to interest a wider audience of gamers in the 9th generation they may not be left behind by 3rd party like they have this gen and in generations past.
If Nintendo wants to win 3rd party support back then they also need to ask 3rd party developers what they want in the way of specs, Nintendo can always add in extra bells and whistles that their own 1st party studios can take advantage of within the hardware, although going with tech that AMD will no doubt make appealing to the PC market isn't a bad move as it would give Nintendo's own developers hardware with huge scope for results.
Just imaging what a Metroid, Zelda, Mario or huge open world Pokemon game would look like developed with terabytes of ram (Universal Memory), GB's of VRAM on die, cost effective, full sized, multi-threaded CPU cores and a decent modern GPU based on 2016/17 technology and more importantly imagine what that would play like.
Technology is right on a precipice of huge improvements that will be amazing to see in the next few years.
