No no no its not a bad idea because of what I think.

Its a bad idea because its conceptually flawed.

Take 3DS+Wii U market share

thats 55 mill currently

If a 1 device is both handheld and home, the wii u part of the sales become redundant so it drops down to 47mil

if b two devices that interface sold seperatly making both devices cheaper. At best you get the current level of sales but at worst, the Wii U becomes pseudo redundant as the games are avaliable on a cheaper platform. 47 mil < sales < 55 mil

if c two devices that interface sold together making one device that is expensive. Decrease in Handheld market who aren't looking for physical console sales. Decrease in total sales due to price. << 55 mil

In every scenario, it is lower than the combined wii u and 3DS market share. Every sceneario lowers the total user base.

Several production variants is not an increase in the POM because you are manufacturing less of each, unless your making doing iphone or higher level production, manfacturing and shipping millions weekly. Adds confusion to customers, similar to the complaints about purchasing pc and pc components for gaming. If the hardware variants are changes on nonessential components like hdd size and type, disc drive, wifi etc, all of those can be more cheaply periphalized rather than creating entirely new skus. If the changes are essential like increase in ram, gpu/cpu spec, etc...it is worse because the only way to guarantee a library in which every game works on every system is to design for the bottom line, essentially making the gpu/cpu and other essential option changes competely superflous and expensive.

In fact, several hardware models directly contradicts the concept of unifying the platforms into a handheld/homeconsole hybrid.

There is a reason apple is not in the console buisness. There is also a reason why smartphone production mentality does not work for consoles.

*Remember the Gameboy Adapter

2017 for sure, here's what I think/hope they do.

Early/Spring 2017 they will do a conference to announce the Wii U successor and release it the same year, lets be real here, they will likely see from what Sony and MS did that they don't need to announce a console a year and a half before it releases, and they won't announce it in a simple Nintendo Direct because a new console is MUCH bigger then announcing a new game, I'm hoping they do what Sony and MS do and really hype it up.

Also I'm hoping it releasing alongside the PS5 or Xbox Two because then it will hopefully be able to be on par or at least almost on par with them spec wise.

It won't be released in 2016 because that's just 4 years of Wii U and 2016 will be the year for the 3DS successor.

And also, any game they make that will be releasing for the Wii U in 2017 will also likey have a Wii U successor version as well, that way they can make the launch better, if the next 3D Mario takes a while to release I could see them pulling a Twilight Princess on it.

I have to agree with(if it is a rumor) rumor of the fusion. There wont be 2 diferent platforms for nintendo from then on. There will only be a handheld that will come close to the wii u in specs and graphics. Then in about a year later, they will put out a module that goes to the tv that will syncronize with the HH and work together to display games in 1440p. It will have a socket for future upgrade that will make it go to full 4k.

This will give customers options, depending on their funds. You can buy the cheapest HH and play all the games as is and if you have a litle more cash buy the upgrade to play on tv at a much higher res and maybe framerate and if you have a lot of cash and like the best graphics there will be a option to play in full 4k. Full gaming expirience for all, specs for those that can aford it or just really need it.

I really dont think the next focuse will be 2 consoles, seeing as the last 4 gens have gone. The wii sold great but it was not anybodys main platform and most games and dlc where sold on ps360. They will focus on HH where they know they will dominate and third partys will sworm back, makinf the people who will buy the module for 1440p a big crowd and the 4k upgrade maybe gamecube numbers.

Edit: This will be anounced on 2016 and arrive in 2017. The first module by 2018.

2018 so that the successor can match the ps5 and xb2 in power

Probably will depend on how sales are in 2016 and what competition is doing, but I'm aiming 2017 for the new handheld and console. Or maybe they'll be fused

I meant for console or this "fusion" device, but for handheld a holiday 2016 release is bound to happen, at the latest it'll come out mid-2017. I can't see the 3DS dragging on like the DS did for 7 years, 3DS' life span will only be 5-6 years max. But at the same time, that 3DS launch was horrendous, I could see Nintendo delaying the system so that Animal Crossing or Mario Kart will be ready for launch or within the launch window, they can't have the 3DS launch repeat itself.

Fusion is the handheld, it just happens to also have a home variant and perhaps other hardware flavors too. When ever it launches that's when I consider the "next gen" for Nintendo to begin because the console variant will simply play the same games just on your TV. So I don't view that as some kind of massive re-launch or something. 

I think the home variant will be out by November 2016 actually. All it will be is the portable chip maybe with double or triple the cores and double the RAM or something like that in a very small casing (like Playstation TV size) in my opinion. 

The Fusion concept doesn't work if the console variant is wildly different or more considerably more powerful than the portable version. I expect it be a 2x-3x gap, enough to allow the same games on the portable Fusion to run in full 1080p for the TV version. 

End of 2017.

I think 2016 is more realistic.

I don't see a point of releasing a new console any time soon. Or, basically, any time at all.

The games already look good enough on WiiU, any progress in graphical fidelity will be minor (or barely visible to the majority of people interested in those games).

The new console will still not have 3rd party support - I believe developers and publishers are quite happy to have a duopoly and a healthy competition between Sony and MS, with an occasional added bonus of PC. I seriously doubt that they would start investing serious money into another version of the same game for marginal results (as I doubt that Nintendo machines will ever again be embraced by a wide variety of gamers).

Nintendo has painted itself into a corner, a corner populated by hardcore, lifelong Nintendo fans, and I doubt that they will ever be able to exit that corner and attract general population away from PS4/XOne.

So, I think they should stick to WiiU for a long time, and once they reach the limit, simply produce a "New WiiU" (like they are doing now with 3DS).