"During the presentation Iwata once again addressed why the NX had been announced before Nintendo was ready to fully reveal it, saying the company wanted to affirm its commitment to home gaming....."

If Nintendo wants to affirm its commitment to home gaming then they should really do something more for the Wii U rather than announcing a new console.  That being said, Nintendo better give some serious love to the Wii U this E3 then.

Do u think they will release both variants at or around the same time? Or do u think they will do a more staggered release? I could see it being

NX Portable-Holiday 2016

NX Console-Holiday 2017

What would u have them do for Wii U? There's really not much they can do at this point besides continue to pump out a handful of quality exclusives each year. Massive price cuts, money hatting 3rd parties, viral marketing is just going to cost them a ton of money without any guarantee of increased sales.

I can see them both releasing next holiday. Though I can see many scenarios.

NX Portable - Summer 2016

NX Console - Holiday 2016

That's my best bet.

Interesting. So what exactly is the difference then between a replacement and a successor? Isn't the newest console always a successor? When is a console ever 'replaced?'

Unfortunatly Nintendo has a little pattern that it usally sticks to, the only time it didn't was the 3DS, that they show off what they are targeting with the console the first E3 and the second E3 show off the launch window games etc. So if it is a fusion concept or the sucessor to the Wii U don't expect it until winter 2017. If it is the sucessor to the 3DS only there is a small chance that japan will see it in 2016 and the rest of the world early to mid 2017.

Ya I could see something like that. What r u thinking in terms of specs, price & launch lineup?

This is probably not the thread for this lol but I think the portable will be... Well I've made an entire thread detailing my predictions on the portable. (http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=197574&page=1) I think that the console will be $300-$400 and be a bit more powerful than the PS4. There's absolutely no way I could predict what the launch line up will look like, but I think there's a good chance we'll see the new 3D Mario at launch. I also think, based on how things in the franchise are usually scheduled, that there's a strong chance we'll see the first entry to Gen 7 of Pokemon on the NX.

I don't want to say too much as I'm hoping Nintendo's E3 will prove me wrong.  But as it's current state you can't honestly say Nintendo's tried their best with the Wii U.  So where's their commitment and how am I to believe they can change for the better for their next console if they can't show it now. (Especially when they know they're lacking in the 3rd party games I would've expect Nintendo to pick up the slack)

Take the DS:

DS => replaced by DSLite => replaced by DSi. The actual successor was the 3DS, which has been replaced by the New3DS.