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Soundwave on 09 June 2015
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nuckles87 said:

It'd already be at least 5 years too late for a Nintendo tablet. At this point they would register as little more than an also-ran. Not to mention the Android OS isn't exactly smooth or well secure, and Nintendo certainly wouldn't want something that could be easily hacked.

Tablets were always transitional technology at best, and it's only a matter of time until they are replaced by larger phones and smaller laptops with disconnectable keyboards. Handhelds may have faded from the days of the DS, but they are at least distinct enough to appeal to a niche, profitable market that won't be going away any time soon. Nothing else, not even a tablet, can replicate the 3DS experience, buttons and all.

"Tablet" is just a general catch all term anyway. 

Nintendo's made handhelds with a "tablet like" (read: non fold out) form factor for years before the DS. 

People also said there was no way Nintendo could make the 3DS/Wii U unhackable, especially since both have an SD Card slot. Well looks to me like they've done a good job as piracy for both systems is down like 95% compared to their predacessors. So you can do it. 

I think "Android OS" is not going to happen technically it will still be a Nintendo OS with a Nintendo OS overlay. *However*, Nikkei usually is not fully wrong either (Nintendo denied two big stories from them recently and both did eventually basically turn out to be true). 

What I think Nintendo will do is Nintendo OS + Android back end that is very tightly controlled and heavily, heavily customized. 

What this will allow is for Android apps to be ported easily, but Nintendo will be able to control which apps are sold and for how much through their eShop. 

So what that allows Nintendo to do is to have a Nintendo OS that has a ton of functionality (they could allow Facebook, Twitter, photo apps, video apps, multiple web browsers, Google Maps) without Nintendo having to do much work at all. They can also allow a certain amount of Android games and charge a licensing fee on them. So kids/parents won't turn their nose at it and say "why should I buy this when my iPad does 1000 different things" ... well ok, what if you can do basically those same 1000 different things plus play Nintendo games for $250 instead of $600 for that iPad. I suspect that sales pitch would interest some people. 

Amazon has the Kindle tablets, and from what I've heard they are not that easy to hack either. Since Nintendo would likely be utilizing a propietary chipset as well, that just makes it even tougher to hack.