Imo they should extend the life of the Wii U similar to PS3, 360. They spent A LOT of money on the Wii U tech(not the CPU or GPU, but the pad and zero latency tech) they should support it for as long as they can to recoup costs, master HD development, and with that build a large and varied library and push out many high quality titles in it's later years. With HD mastery, titles can come out faster while costing less, so they can stand to gain some profit on software. Hopefully in time the Wii U will be priced low enough to not take a loss and the library will be large enough to communicate it's value to the average consumer and perhaps it can have a great year or two. I'd be okay with the Wii U lasting longer if it had a huge library.

And do you think rushing hardware through the door is going to help with that ? You need more than a year to prepare software for a hardware launch, so if we're talking about a hypothetical 2015 release, that means working on said software now. And I don't see that happening, as Nintendo's internal teams are currently busy on WiiU and 3DS software for 2014-2015 at least, not to mention the "Quality of Life" platform (which could end up being the money-maker you claim they need).

Despite all this talk of 3DS YoY declines in Japan, Vita barely manages to tie or outsell it in a good week, being regularly outsold by it. There's no signs whatsoever of Vita outselling 3DS in Japan this year, and it's too soon to talk about next year. Just like 3DS might be getting to its saturation point, so will Vita eventually, and we have yet to see any "game-changers" here software-wise for it to expand its potential.

Besides, the difference between install bases will still be there anyway, not to mention in the West. The support is not going to magically disappear any time soon...

GBA released in 2000 and DS was 2004.

who knows with nintendo anymore, they are allover the place.

No it wasn't. It was released in 2001. 

It's interesting that a point of conversation here is the 3DS - and I agree with that. For me it's the bigger concern. It may end up selling barely more than 50% of the DS, even if it has 80% of the handheld market. This tells me that many "new" gaming consumers are not picking it up, and it's not keeping many of the previous owners. There is also little reason for future buyers to pick it up since most of the key titles have released. It will continue to sell solid, especially with price cuts, but its growth is limited.

When I look around society, I see iPads as the hot item with kids. It's hard to blame them, it's what their friends have it just looks so damn cool. The constant update of these devices also makes Nintendo's system seem dated. They need to act now. A new handheld device needs to launch next year, and it needs to be more impressive than an iPad. It needs to look cooler and have more fun things to do. I would recommend a Nintendo-branded Android tablet with subtle physical controls. Either that or something totally revolutionary - but that's easier said than done. In fact, I think this QOL product may in fact be a tablet. Iwata never said it was about exercise - it could be about mental QoL.

As far as the home console space, I think Nintendo would be wise to launch a premium system in the relative near term, within 2 years. They could price it a bit high as long as it was significantly more powerful than other systems in the market, and start sales slow. They could contract or buy a couple studios to make some high-end launch titles that gamers expect from such a system - a cool shooter, adventure title and an rpg, while still supporting the Wii U with internal resources. I expect Wii U to sell "OK" over the next couple years, but it's life is likely short whether Nintendo likes it or not, and they need to prepare for something fresh. They could also do well by launching soon and perhaps be the most powerful system on the market for 5 years or so.

I dont understand...
Alot of the posts in this thread are talking about the 3DS like it is seeing Vita level sales.

The 3DS is in no way in a bad spot, it is doing extremely well, especially when considering the rough start it had.

My bad good sir. You are correct.

Nobody said 3ds numbers are bad, but it's tracking way behind of ds and some people think will not reach PSP/GBA level of sales. Except for 7th gen, handhelds have been pretty much saving Nintendo's ass and with 3ds dropping a lot yoy due to smartphones...

According to vgchartz (which may be off by a bit) 3DS sold 1.85 million from Jan 6, 2013 to Mar 23, 2013. From Jan 5, 2014 to Mar 22, 2014 vgchartz has 3DS selling 1.5 million. Assuming that this site is close to accurate 3DS is not down by a huge margin.