Nintendo's next handheld will be a tablet, and that is a good thing

[Soundwave]

To be honest Nintendo could have several competetive advantages going this route.

All tablet makers have to make all their money back from the tablet itself.

But Nintendo being a game maker could sell the tablet at/near cost, thus having far better hardware or being able to sell a tablet with specs that no one else can really match.

IE: They could theoretically offer a $300 "game tablet handheld" that has a better chipset than $700 iPad for example.

Secondly, which mainstream company has a tablet-style device with physical gaming controls on it? Cheap Korean companies that can't even get distribution in most major US retailers don't count.

No it won't beat the iPad in sales. But it could beat a lot of tablets in price to performance ratio, and also have the benefit of being the best portable gaming device for everyone as it could have both the simple iOS/Android style games but also all the exclusive Nintendo games.

If I'm choosing between a $400 Android tablet next to a $250-$300 Nintendo one ... I'd probably take the Nintendo one to be honest. Why should I pay more for less features? In this case, Nintendo would have a competitive advantage.