I call it a "home variant". There could be 3 or 4 devices who knows. 

Maybe Nintendo might even cut deals with cable TV providers to provide their functionality in cable boxes for example ... especially if their chip is based around mobile components (see Nintendo's recent job listing for a lead graphic engineer that strongly indicates this). 

I look at it this way. 

Mario Kart 7 - 3DS game

Mario Kart 8 - Wii U game

Mario Kart 9 - Fusion game, you can choose which hardware you want to play it on. But it will be the same game (effectively) where ever you play. Not "tied down" to any one platform. 

Yes I agree, hybrid is the wrong word, I hate it too. I prefer unified, that's the term Iwata himself has used as well.

To me hybrid=combining multiple things into 1

unified=taking multiple things and making them more similar

In a way too going to "unifed" approach will be a bit of a relief for Nintendo, now they don't have to worry about the console division constantly or have it be a drain on their bottom line, or having to sell a home console alone to developers, consumers, and support it with an entirely distinct library and try to continually make a sales pitch for it when consumers keep ignoring it. 

If people buy the home variant, great, it's like icing on the cake. If they don't, so be it, Nintendo can still all their games to the 60-80 million people that will buy the portable variants.

Right now they have to do all this heavy lifting trying to convince people to buy a console and build its userbase to 20-30 million+ so that they can sell games like Pikmin 3 and Mario 3D World to a decent sized userbase.

Unless they have a miracle gimmick like a Wiimote that catches on at exactly the right time (with no competetion around), they really have had all types of headaches trying to convince people to buy their home console for the last 12-13 years. 

I have to imagine in a way Nintendo is looking forward to the Fusion/Unified Nintendo Hardware-Era because it frees them of that stress of having to push a console division, it must be like try to push a giant boulder uphill for them. 

Sorry if I'm confusing u, I'm still talking about releasing a new console in 2016.

February 2016-Nintendo Direct to announce next-gen console and have trailers for a couple launch games

June 2016-E3 give a full reveal with launch window (holiday 2016) and have demos for games releasing thru spring of the following year

September 2016-Nintendo Direct to give final details such as specific launch date/price/lineup/release windows for early 2017 titles

November/December 2016-launch the console worldwide

Amiibo's will most likely be supported on Nintendo's next-gen devices plus a holiday 2016 release gives them 2 full years of support on Wii U. We already know of Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Hyrule Warriors, Kirby, Yoshi, Captain Toad, Mario Party having Amiibo support. I also wouldn't be surprised to see games like Zelda U, Mario Maker, Xenoblade, Star Fox, Splatoon get Amiibo support as well, in addition to games we don't even know about yet. Amiibo doesn't have any impact on when new hardware comes out.

Also about Quality of Life, it has nothing to do with the gaming aspect of Nintendo, the first revealed QoL product is a device that tracks ur sleeping patterns and informs u of ways to improve ur health. QoL doesn't have any impact on when new hardware comes out either.

Yep, outside of huge Nintendo fans (like myself), Wii U isn't worth a purchase at $299.99 for a handful of key exclusives per year, especially when u can get a Nintendo handheld for about half that with software prices being about 50% less and has like 10 times the amount of games.

Another thing to consider is that development time/costs rise significantly with the jump to HD. Nintendo's next handheld is likely to be HD so that means Nintendo has to develop games for two separate HD devices which will make their software output problems even worse and then they will have two devices with droughts between major 1st party releases. With this unifed approach where all games release on either variant, we could feasibly see a release schedule like 3DS had in 2013 every year.

Also this pretty much fixes Nintendo's 3rd party support problem that they have had with their consoles. Nintendo handhelds have always gotten strong support from Japanese 3rd parties and get a bunch of kid-friendly western 3rd party releases every year.

Basically it comes down to iOS/Android for low-budget <$1 games, PS/XB/PC for $50-60 AAA titles and Nintendo Fusion for $30-40 mid-level gaming. Nintendo 1st parties+hardcore Japanese 3rd parties+kid friendly western 3rd parties+indies+virtual console gives Nintendo a very strong software library.

I think the next Nintendo consoles will feature a unified platform (architecture, online and so on), but still a home and handheld console. The only issue would be that Nintendo will likely go with only one physical media type. So this would mean a cartridge (for the sake of making it easy for the portable). Then should the home console feature a disc drive? If it did it would only be there for the sake of backwards compatibility of disc based Wii and WiiU software. Of course BC isn't a requirement but has been a nice feature for both the WiiU and Wii in the past, and consoles of other companies.

Sooner the better honestly.

It's not that I'm not enjoying my Wii U, but the games I'm enjoying aren't using the hardware in any meaningful way. So, I'd rather them design a new system with some new gimmick, or just release a more powerful console.

Discs suck. The disc drive is an unneccessary cost and one of the most annoying things about the Wii U is how damn loud the disc drive is. It sounds like its having a seizure when trying to load Bayonetta cutscenes for example. 

They can use 3DS style carts next time for both the portable and home variants. Nowadays 4GB-16GB storage is cheap is 32GB is even getting dirt cheap, so 4-32GB carts should be good enough for most any game. 

The next Nintendo "console" will be tiny, like PlaystationTV size I think. No disc drive at all IMO. You'll be able to fit the console in your pocket if you really wanted to because it'll just be the handheld chip with more CPU/GPU cores and extra RAM, but that's it. The chipset even in an iPhone 6s is tiny, especially when you remove the battery which is what takes up like 70% of the space in an iPhone. I expect Nintendo to use similar sized components, even for the console variant. 

Eh I don't think a 32 GB cart is gonna be anywhere as cheap as a disc. I think possibly they will focus mostly on digital for the handheld. They better have a decent WiFi chip.

3DS carts can be as large as 8GB. I believe for DS the largest was 1GB. 

So 16-32GB next time out is really not out of the question. 

Though I suspect not many devs will ever need more than 16GB, but 32GB I would think would become feasible as say 2017, 2018, etc. rolls along.