I think it's the other way around more likely. More people will choose the handheld than the console version. Franchises like 3D Zelda, Splatoon, Mario Maker, and the higher fidelity Nintendo franchises will no longer be kept away from the handheld. 

The main thing the console variant will have is that it'll probably offer better graphics to the same games.

PSP was announced before the DS in fact it's long been considered the DS was a reaction to it, GBA was going to be cut short no matter what as a strong competitior was now on the way. DS launched a month before the PSP and that was in one region, NA, while the PSP launched in Japan, so it was both devices that impacted the GBA, the PSP for the first 7 or so months when released in NA was outselling the DS in the US.

The only way the 3DS would have got a successor as fast as the GBA is if the 3DS had performed badly, worse then the Wii U has, that's the context behind both the GBA and the 3DS, one performed with no competition and was cut short when competition turned up while the other has performed with competition. Believe me if Nintendo thought the GBA was going to be fine and sell loads more when the PSP was launched they would not have brought out the DS as quickly as they did if at all, PSP is what ended the GBA's run not the DS.

Sorry but you refusing to accept this very site that you're on as a source is not my problem and doesn't put any requirement on me, software sales declined from 2009 onwards the years when the homebrew scene really exploded mind you with only games like MH carrying the platform after that year.

Soundwave pretty much hit the point on the head as it's more likely the portable side benefits more from sharing the library, Smash bros had a bigger impact on 3DS then Wii U as did 3D Mario while MK had an equal effect on both portable and home console. What the console side of things is going to benefit from is more the third party titiles put on the portable as that would help deal with droughts.

I don't think it's really much of a stretch. Given a choice between a Nintendo handheld and a console we have pretty definitive proof for over like 20 years now that people have chosen the Nintendo handheld even with dramatically lower graphical capabilities. 

Even the Wii, Nintendo's one big console success in the last 20 years was outsold fairly easily by the DS (wasn't even close). 

And 3DS while it may finish at 70-75 million, that's still miles away from the 18-20 million the Wii U looks bound for. 

If the only difference going forward between the two devices is going to be the same game experiences but better graphics for the console version, the handheld is likely going to be far and away the no.1 choice for consumers. 

Remember the GCN had the entire GBA library too, via the GB Player, it still wasn't even close to GBA sales. The portability aspect is far more appealling to consumers.

They better have some games to be release exclusively on the console, because they will not stay relevant if they stick to only making handhelds. They need to compete with Sony and Microsoft just like they did with Sega.

GBA sales were going to decline as result of the PSP's existence that's the whole point, if the DS wasn't there the sales would have gone to Sony, Nintendo had to get the DS out fast otherwise they risked handing the market to Sony like how the N64 delay gave Sony free reign over the console market for a year and a half. Even if the DS was always on the way the PSP forced the situation in bringing it out early in the GBA's life.

Again it isn't really my problem if you don't want to accept VGC because if I was wrong on the software side of things on the PSP the site would have numbers however inaccurate highlighting this after all they have the numbers of notable releases after 2009 and those aren't great, piracy and homebrew on the PSP was no secret.

Smash is a series that not only has never hit portable but a fighting game as well, a genre that has never really faired well on portables, the majority of people thought the home console version would outell it no problem but instead the opposite happened. I'm willing to bet the games that have been exclusive on console until now will experience something similar as really the main reason the consoles would benefit from having a shared library is the third party games the portable side of things get.

I kinda expect that Nintendo's business in the coming years will be driven mostly by

NX Portable (pillar 1) and smartphone games (pillar 2, which will be very profitable for them).

The console will just be more of like an accessorie to the handheld that they sell a fairly low number of but keep around for legacy sake and for the group of Nintendo fans who just must play games on their TV.

Yeah I can see the console side of it hovering at 15-20m each time tbh, with the portable and mobile side making most of the money.

Nintendo sells tens of millions of consoles every generation. How is this not a success? I know turning issues into black and white sells but let's be honest, they have always made money and it doesn't show any signs of stopping.

Lets look at the scenario you're putting forward and use another example to highlight how it could have played out, so Nintendo keeps the GBA around and it gets a few more sales problem is with out the DS but then Sony may have taken hold of the portable market, the SNES was healthy when the PS1 and Saturn arrived but the result of that was that when the N64 came it was thrown in a losing battle by default against the PS1, Monster Hunter made its jump to PSP not long after it launched and that was a huge killer app for the PSP and the GBA at that point already had all its big guns out, MH could have done for PSP what the likes of Wipeout and Crash did for PS1. That risk was far too big for Nintendo to take and they were right as PSP sold GBA numbers for a while after launch, Playstation as a brand was a massively known factor in gaming at this point unlike with the SNES so the risk was even bigger.

That game highlights my point it's one of the best selling games so they have some numbers for it even if as you claim they're inaccurate the site indicates that it sold well.

Sorry but that'snot true as the majority of people didn't expect the portable version to sell more at any point because the Smash community are console based and fighting games on portables struggle, the earlier release was seen by people as an attempt to give the portable version a chance to sell as everyone expected the home version to demolish the portable version if released together and it's possible Nintendo may have felt the same.

But you said you wouldn't buy it if it didn't have an optical drive.

There's a lot of physical media that isn't read from an optical disc.