http://youtu.be/T8vIsAmKRho

The Vita is not effectively targeted at anyone, not core gamers and not adults. It doesn't have the content to appeal to any large market, who they marketed the system at would make very little difference.

Lets just put it like this most kids would have rather of had a PS2 over a gamecube and similarly today they'd probably rather have a PS4 over a Wii U, same way they'd prefer an Ipad over a 3DS. Point is to be desired by kids you don't need to market to them as your main demographic, Nintendo has always been dependent on their core fanbase whom at this point are definitely not kids. Expanding beyond that core base isn't going to be achieve by marketing at kids especially not on handhelds seeing as they own a monopoly of the dedicated market. If kids aren't getting tablets ( i doubt many parents would bother), they're going to get a handheld- Nintendo has the content to appeal to a wide audience (PSV isn't competition) they don't need to pander specifically to kids 

Also the DS was definitely more effective in marketing at mature audiences then the PSP, the whole design of it was to appear sleek and modern. Not just a gamey toy techy people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8vIsAmKRho 

Especially with the casual market gone I think people really underestimate how of Nintendo's audience is actually just grown men who enjoy Pokemon, Mario alongside core gamers who can't ignore the brilliance of the 3DS's library. Even when the 3DS was selling "poorly" (when the system was $250), it was selling 90-100k a week WW. Theres no reason to think that a slightly more mature skewering of their product will cause a decline in kids as an audience.

Here iwata talks about the 3DS having a more core demographic versus the DS which saw a jump in kids and parents
http://www.gonintendo.com/s/171004-iwata-on-3ds-demographic-western-devs-shunning-portable-development-expanded-audience-games-coming

Pokemon audience aging
http://www.siliconera.com/2014/12/01/pokemons-audience-growing-older/

Well why not aim for all the fan bases? Put adult games on their and put games for teens on their and games for kids so it can be an everyone platform?

The kiddie image of Nintendo really blew up after the Mortal Kombat incident. That's when Sega really won the label of the "cool" console and Nintendo was painted as the one for kids, but that's Nintendo's own fault. Luckily NOA realized how big of a blunder that was and changed course quickly. Unfortunately Nintendo is not as flexible today. 

But in terms of the handheld market today, that's neither here nor there. Nintendo isn't competing against Sony or Microsoft or even Sega in the handheld market. These are the biggest handheld games in the world right now: 

Not exactly COD and Madden. That's why I think the play for Nintendo is to actually go upmarket here. It's also fairly obvious looking at this where Nintendo's Wii/DS has evaporated to, people can stay in denial about that all they want though. 

I think people look at Nintendo portables and say "well I can get fun, cartoony looking games on my iPhone for free, why do I need a Nintendo DS for that?". 

It needs to be asked too why more people choose the fully featured larger 3DS XL over the kids-focused and cheaper 2DS and regular 3DS models. 

I was surprised to see their New 3DS ad targeting adults. I think the handheld is a more adult friendly gaming device as with growing up comes many many responsibilities so the ability to game anywhere you have free time with smaller sort of bite sized play sessions makes more sense.

The answer is an obvious yes, but its not only about the type of games and specs.

When there is competition for pocket space, Nintendo must justify the device they are selling (other than gaming). Now I'm not saying Nintendo should make a phone, but they should take something from the mobile arena. I think BOTH adults and < 18 y/os would love for the next Ninty handheld to have text only and possibly data plan offerings, if possible. Whether its a deal with an exclusive provider, or multiple companies by choosing which app to sign in to, Nintendo could thrive again in the mobile market w/o being a complete dinosaur.

I really think they missed an opportunity to market the 3DS as a 3D porn device. If they want to sell the game to middle aged women they should have made an cinematic QTE infested 50 Shades of Grey game. Wait, is that not what you meant by "adult".

I think Nintendo should take a page from Sony with the PS4 and cut the bullsh*t with features that unnecessarily make hardware more expensive than need be.

Drop the dual screen. The second screen adds a large cost (the most expensive component of any handheld/tablet is the LCD screen, not the chipset or RAM). Today getting a single 5.5-6 inch decent quality touch panel (single screen) is dirt cheap. Opt for that. Dual screen also makes the system heavier and eats up internal space that could be used instead for a larger battery.

Drop 3D. 3D screens are far more expensive than regular LCDs that everyone else uses and are widely mass produced. 3D also requires double the back light of non-3D screens, killing your battery life and forcing you to have to go with a lower end chip. 3D also chews up processing power since the same image needs to be rendered twice to create the effect.

Ditch it. You can always release a 3D model later on when your base costs drop and Nintendo likes to revise their handhelds 3+ times each gen anyway.

Spend your money on a really nice chipset, don't cut corners on it, and a nice big battery that can run that chip for a comfortable 5-6 hours at least.

Get a decent LCD screen, but don't go crazy in cost here either. My 8 inch Samsung tablet that's over a year old has a basic 1280x720 LCD display and it looks great when I run Mario 3D World HD videos on it from Youtube. It's not even OLED. I'm sure Nintendo could get something similar in a 5.5-6 inch size a year from now for cheap.

I think Nintendo was caught in a unique situation being in the DS era, but with that coming to an end, also emphasis placed on profits more than ever, Nintendo  will likely opt for off the shelf components.  If Ninty wants to maintain dual screen in some capacity, it can be a unique feature when owning both HH and Home versions of the hardware.

As far as the chipset, I get the feeling it will be higher end, mainly b/c it will be utilized in all their HW line of products for that generation.With larger initial and projected future orders,  it should net Nintedo a friendly contract with the chip manufacturer.

This means forgoing backwards compatibility for their handheld lines ...

That's fine, like he said earlier, they can keep the 3DS line around as a more budget device.

2DS-$69.99

New 3DS-$99.99

New 3DS XL-$129.99

Something like that a few years from now that plays all DS+3DS games would be worthwhile and have the new handheld in the $169-199 range.