It had nothing to do with integration of Nintendo platforms. At the time, I was merely looking at the incredible growth in the mobile/tablet industry and how the emphasis on quick, simple and convenient gaming grew every month, there was no way that a traditional handheld could man the barricades for long against this. It was one of the only things Pachter said at the time that I fully agreed with.

I did not foresee the integration of Nintendo platforms, I more or less assumed up until a couple of weeks ago that they would refuse to re-invent themselves and possibly set themselves up for another disasttrous generation of consoles.

I get what you're saying though; right conclusion based on false reasoning and arguments happens all the time in here. But, like I said; that was not the case here, I maintained that dedicated handhelds were going away (from at least as far back as 2010) and I also maintained that Gamepad would be a problem for the Wii U, putting it too closely in competition with the unstopable mobile/tablet market.

I'm not expecting a true successor to 3DS until 2017 at the earliest, at which point they'll release some sort of home / handheld hybrid console. The 3DS family reaching 80 million lifetime sales is definitely doable.

Nintendo handhelds tend to stick around for quite a while, with GBA being a fluke since the DS was originally intended as a third pillar and not a successor device.

It depends. The GBA still sold a lot after the DS came out, so I think the 3DS can reach GBA's sales, but only after the successor comes out.