the wii u is not a tablet

who says you cant have similar buttons on a tablet

Exactly. 

Nintendo should just get out of this pissing race. 

Let people choose multiple hardware types, whatever is best for them fine. 

NX Tablet. NX Handheld. NX Cheaper Family console with wacky gimmick controller. NX Pro console with more horsepower and larger size, more expensive. 

Same games run on all of them at varying effects/resolution. 

Now people can shut the f*ck up about dictating to other people that everyone needs to play games *exactly* the same way they do. 

If I need a Macbook Pro, I can buy that, if I want just a Macbook, that's cool too. I buy based on my needs. Democrotizing hardware so the consumer has CHOICE is the best thing Nintendo could do. 

I'll also bet dollars to donughts if Nintendo goes this route, given a choice most consumers will choose the tablet Nintendo NX variant over the smaller handheld fold-out one. Same way the 3DS XL outsells the smaller regular 3DS by a large margin. 

The world will apparently end if there's buttons on a tablet I guess. Like seriously the amount of imagination if takes to imagine a Nintendo handheld in a tablet form factor is like nill, lol. If you can't possibly imagine it, seriously you have the imagination of a brick wall. 

Just an FYI ... Nintendo made handhelds for 15 years before the DS/3DS layout became their standard and they will eventually break from this layout, and I'd say  now is as good of a time as any to introduce a new form factor. 

That's not exactly the case. What drove down tablet sales was the phablet sector, that provided a middle-ground for some people that didn't liked carrying two devices but also didn't cared if the smartphone was huge. Ultrabooks also covered some ground.

It's not like they are going anywhere, it's just like some products were capable of providing a better experience in some cases. Despite that, I've read a report saying that tablet sales in Brazil are on a rise while laptops went down. Overall, we can expect the tablet market to keep growing worldwide.

Dang I hate playing on tablets... I hope they don't go that route.

It'd already be at least 5 years too late for a Nintendo tablet. At this point they would register as little more than an also-ran. Not to mention the Android OS isn't exactly smooth or well secure, and Nintendo certainly wouldn't want something that could be easily hacked.

Tablets were always transitional technology at best, and it's only a matter of time until they are replaced by larger phones and smaller laptops with disconnectable keyboards. Handhelds may have faded from the days of the DS, but they are at least distinct enough to appeal to a niche, profitable market that won't be going away any time soon. Nothing else, not even a tablet, can replicate the 3DS experience, buttons and all.

"Tablet" is just a general catch all term anyway. 

Nintendo's made handhelds with a "tablet like" (read: non fold out) form factor for years before the DS. 

People also said there was no way Nintendo could make the 3DS/Wii U unhackable, especially since both have an SD Card slot. Well looks to me like they've done a good job as piracy for both systems is down like 95% compared to their predacessors. So you can do it. 

I think "Android OS" is not going to happen technically it will still be a Nintendo OS with a Nintendo OS overlay. *However*, Nikkei usually is not fully wrong either (Nintendo denied two big stories from them recently and both did eventually basically turn out to be true). 

What I think Nintendo will do is Nintendo OS + Android back end that is very tightly controlled and heavily, heavily customized. 

What this will allow is for Android apps to be ported easily, but Nintendo will be able to control which apps are sold and for how much through their eShop. 

So what that allows Nintendo to do is to have a Nintendo OS that has a ton of functionality (they could allow Facebook, Twitter, photo apps, video apps, multiple web browsers, Google Maps) without Nintendo having to do much work at all. They can also allow a certain amount of Android games and charge a licensing fee on them. So kids/parents won't turn their nose at it and say "why should I buy this when my iPad does 1000 different things" ... well ok, what if you can do basically those same 1000 different things plus play Nintendo games for $250 instead of $600 for that iPad. I suspect that sales pitch would interest some people. 

Amazon has the Kindle tablets, and from what I've heard they are not that easy to hack either. Since Nintendo would likely be utilizing a propietary chipset as well, that just makes it even tougher to hack. 

I've only ever really seen people call devices that are just touchscreens and a home button tablets. I've certainly never seen someone refer to the GBA, Atari Lynx, or Game Gear as "tablets" or "tablet-like'" devices.

When I was talking about it being "hackable," I was referring SPECIFICALLY to a tablet with an Android OS. If it ran a proprietary OS, that would not even be an issue I'd bring up (though even the 3DS's security has proven not to be bullet proof, it's nothing compared to the free-for-all that is Android).

On the Kindle, though...that thing may be more secure, but it's OS is pretty crappy. It's slow and glitchy, and from what I've heard the new models have yet to fix that. The only great tablet I've ever used is the iPad, which doesn't have an ounce of Android in it. I hope that if Nintendo does do what you suggest (which would certainly make sense when it comes to getting lots of apps from developers) that they do a much better job of it.

Yeah but I don't really understand why people have such a hard time comprehending that Nintendo isn't beholden to any of these rules. They can make their own OS overlay, and it can run as well (or as poorly) as they want. It's not like there's some royal decree hanging over their head that says everything must be one way. If I recall the Wii/Wii U already can run a non-Nintendo OS (Ubuntu) as an underlay. 

And I do think Nikkei is correct. NX will incoporate a some parts of Android. It'll just be extremely customized.