Using this "common sense and knowing how Nintendo operates ", everything points to a handheld, since 3ds releases already slowed down but wii u's didn't. it makes perfect sense for the nx to be 3ds successor arriving in 2016.

Wouldn't surprise me if it was. The only thing I see at E3 2016 for Wii U would be some cross gen stuff...

Even if it is a handheld (I think it's both a handheld + home variant btw) ... it's not like handheld games grow on trees or can be slapped together in a few months. 

Nintendo had to basically stop all major Wii development aside from Skyward Sword just to get the 3DS on any decent footing and still barely made it on some of those titles -- Mario Kart 7 require Retro to have to help EAD to make it out on time. 

The next handheld, if that's what NX is, will almost certainly be a good deal more powerful than the 3DS too, we're talking HD/Wii U/PS3 sized projects. 

If they want to launch even in 2017 they have to start development now. If it is a 3DS successor we are probably talking about something that's more spring 2017 not fall. 3DS will be very old by 2017 and badly in need of an upgrade by that point. Nintendo's smartphone games will all be on a gorgeous Retina display with better than 1080p resolution and their 3DS games in that shitty sub-HD resolution ... yeah don't see kids buying that. 

To be honest they should really try and see if they can get the 3DS successor out by late 2016 at least for Japan. Spring 2017 ... by then 3DS will be ancient and its shipments will be have dropped probably to below 6-7 million a year. 6 year+ life cycles should be reserved only for platforms that are on pace to hit 100 million or more. 

Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem

Diddy King Racing

Pokken Fighters

Paper Mario

Animal Crossing

Metroid Prime

Mario Strikers

That would be a decent 2016 lineup

Nothing has to "carry" the Wii U ... it is what it is. A low selling platform that maybe can scrape by with 3 million shipments a year.

As long as they can throw out enough content for 2016 to keep the people who own one busy, that's good enough.

They're not going to kill themselves supporting a system that barely anyone owns.

Time to focus on the future, smart device development and NX has to be given priority. Wii U had its chance and Nintendo has given it all their big gun IP (Mario 3D, Mario 2D, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, DKC) and it still is selling like hot garbage.

At this point supporting it is a courtesy for the people that bought one. Nothing more, nothing less. It will be a foot note in Nintendo's history as probably their worst selling home console. That's its legacy and nothing barring a miracle is changing that. 

But that's the reason why i'm arguing that they should get the successor(s) out in 2016. 3DS will be on its last legs and Wii U will plod along at its pace, unless they come out swinging with the mobile games next year, it'll be a terrible year for them financially, as NX development eats up R&D while their existing consoles flatline.

Nintendo stoped major wii software development in order to start developing WII U GAMES. Right now, 3ds software has slowed down and wii u's hasn't, so it makes sense that they are switching to a new handheld.

"The next handheld, if that's what NX is, will almost certainly be a good deal more powerful than the 3DS too, we're talking HD/Wii U/PS3 sized projects."

I think you meant HD/PS3 sized projects. But so what? it seems they already started development since 2015, given 3ds slowing down in releases. And the unified architeture of their next gen systems will speed things up for them.

Nintendo will keep trying to sell as many wii u hardware and software as they can at a profit. No need for this doom and gloom.

Forget whether they are successful sales-wise or not, Nintendo pretty consistently drops most support for their consoles after the 4th year. Even the Wii's last couple years were pretty sparse. I love Nintendo, but I can acknowledge that they struggle to provide enough first-party content for both a handheld AND a console at the same time. When you factor in transition years, at times they can be struggling to provide games for 3-4 different systems at one time. So I don't think there's any question that after this year, the Wii U software lineup will begin to run dry. Just like the 3DS lineup already essentially is. Both 3DS and Wii U struggled with weak launch lineups, so in order to avoid that, they pretty much have to be already working on software for their next systems. 

Oh yes, absolutely. They will try to talk about Wii U next year, but no one will be listening because they'll know NX is coming.