Regarding 3DS sales, I think people are underestimating the fact that the pricing is still very bad compared to Nintendo's previous systems, it's not at a "mass market" level worldwide. Yes, there's the cheap 2DS, but the naming doesn't help with generating new sales, and advertising isn't very good outside Japan. They need to come off the "DS" name and start something different, and actually advertise better. The software is there though. Price it reasonably, with decent amount of software, and it'll take off.

As for the Home Console front, I personally don't see a "downward trend" in the sense that Nintendo is becoming irrelevant simply because they're Nintendo, it's more like Nintendo is screwing up each hardware launch more so than the last (aside from Wii) and making the same mistakes + greater ones at that. If Nintendo for once launched a home console with minimal issues, they would see decent numbers, that means no name issues, no lack of significant advertising, no failed gimmicks, no underpowered hardware relative to the rest of the industry, no more huge software droughts, at least SOME third party support etc, but that hasn't happened. Wii U is rock bottom, the successor won't do worse just because there's this supposed "trend", unless people believe they'll screw up that hardware worse than Wii U. They'll need to do that in order to sell less than Wii U, it won't happen " just because".

Just because it has never happened means it never can? And I said in another post that I think the handheld version will be more powerful than Vita. And no I'm not asking for a package deal. I think they will have a seperate handheld and seperate console but with the same architecture, operating system, online infrastructure that can share a library and offer cross-buy/cross-save.

Handheld version-between Vita & Wii U in terms of power, similar to 3DS being between PSP & Wii. Able to handle Wii U level visuals on a smaller  screen and lower resolution. Sold for $199.

Console version- slight increase over Wii U in power, similar to the increase from GC to Wii. Extra power allows it to run games at higher resolution with maybe some extra graphical effects. Sold for $199.

This let's Nintendo increase their software output by not having to make games for 2 completely different pieces of hardware, instead of having to make 2 seperate versions of nearly every franchise, Nintendo can now start to pump out new ip at a faster rate. This also ensures that the console will have 3rd party support since it will have all the same games the handheld has.

Not really. At $129, the 3DS is cheap now. That's lower than mass market price.

That's not the 3DS price, it's the 2DS. The fact is, Nintendo has shipped more 3DS XL units per quarter compared to the 2DS in the regions where it's available; therefore is still the main product of the Nintendo 3DS line (I'm ignoring Japan since the 2DS doesn't exist at retail there). 3DS XL Sales Units for the first Quarter was 160K for the Americas, 80K for the 2DS, 150K for RoTW 3DS XL, 130K of 2DS. For the 2nd Quarter, 3DS XL Sales Units were 350K for the Americas, 100K for the 2DS, 250K for RoTW 3DS XL, 120K for the 2DS. So far this year worldwide, 910K 3DS XL were sold-in (where the 2DS is also available), VS the 430K of the 2DS, not even half of their shipments. With these facts, Nintendo is still focusing mainly on the 3DS XL units, and are still $199.99 MSRP, the 2DS isn't replacing the 3DS XL like the DS-lite did for the DS. One cannot claim that the 3DS has fully reached "mass market" prices if the main product of the line is still $200. 

I'm honestly not quite sure how Nintendo turns the ship around at the moment. People seem to have ingrained within them right now a false dichotomy between only Microsoft and Sony - unless Nintendo can force themselves back into general thinking where can they go but down?

Next handheld will decrease sales because of tablets and phones

Next home system will increase by around 10 million if my prediction is correct about them going on par with competitions power. Getting access to 3rd party will get them better numbers than wii u guaranteed

Iwata says Nintendo is a company that can "do whatever it wants".

It seems over the last 12 months they've changed their strategy to just go full-on after the hardcore base and sell as many games as possible to the rabid fans, myself included. That revenue helps make up for the lost sales from more moderate and casual fans that don't always buy each generation of system.

I think that it all depends on how you launch a system. If they get the price right at the outset, and they launch with at least two AAA games that people really want, then they'll have a decent chance. It's about software, but it's also about system price and reputation.

Wii U no longer has a slim library, it has a great library, but that doesn't seem to matter to many people. Many people still don't want to buy one, because the system's reputation has suffered even more than the GameCube.

Many people don't want it because they don't think its library is great unlike you, or they think the system is too expensive for what it offers, or they barely have any time left for gaming on anything but a PS4/XB1 like me.

The Wii was at least twice as powerful as the GameCube and more powerful than the PS2 and the Xbox.  That "modest power upgrade" was a 100% increase and, again, more powerful than all 6th gen offerings.  And it would not help NIntendo's output that much at all because they still have to cater to two demographics which clearly don't overlap as much as people think.  Having the same games on both would not help all that much as many handheld franchises clearly don't interest those who don't buy the handhelds but do buy the consoles.  Same for the other way around.  I do agree with unifying the underlying structures of the consoles, but that can be done without compromising the progress of their home console offerings.  If the programming techniques are similar to each other then that will already allow for a very fluid workforce that can drift between platforms freely, allowing for a hihgly efficient development process in general.  A better investment would be expanding their output capabilities with more teams while maintaining the efficiency of individual teams.

I would say yes. It won't be hard to seeing the abysmal sales this gen (wii u). I think Nintendos smart enough to turn this around.