I agree.  I would even go as far to say that if the NX is a unified platform and it ends up selling 30-40 million, that I think this would be a success.  I think there's a couple of reasons for this:

1)  It would be the second Nintendo home console to have increased sales compared to its predecessor and the first time where it wasn't a fluke: it reverses a very crucial trend in Nintendo's home console market.

2) The NX is being released mid-gen and critics are right that it does have a bit of an uphill battle to climb it's way back into the market.  30-40 million would be very impressive numbers with the generation half way over.

3) With the unified hardware concept, Nintendo would possibly be outputing 2 x as much first party software as what even the 3DS is currently getting.  Now I assume that Nintendo makes most of their profit on software sales so the NX alone at 30 million could be delivering 3DS-level profits with the added benefit of the lead-weight Wii U not dragging it down.

Well I certainly hope they do. We need 3 people in the race, otherwise its less interesting :(

No, NX selling only 30-40 million total as a unified platform would be very bad. That would be a further 50% decline from 3DS/Wii U hardware sales and total software sales would only be around 250 million. With a 5 year cycle that would only be like 6-8 million & 50 million per year which would not be bringing in enough money for Nintendo to make a large profit.

40m on half a generation would be a failure. You're telling me that a Nintendo platform with a handheld/console version and a unified library will be lucky to sell less than the 3DS did (by itself and on half a Nintendo library) in a 3 year span (42 million)?

There is always the chance that people who don't own a 3DS or Wii U may buy one, perhaps the individual libraries of those devices aren't quite compelling enough for someone to buy either of them but if there was a device that had the combined library than it may be more of a worthwhile purchase.

And saying people won't buy both is like saying people who own an iPhone won't buy an iPad or vice versa. The idea of playing a game at home then taking it wherever u go or playing on the go and coming home to get the big screen experience is potentially a selling point for certain people.

There is also price & marketing that are factors, if these devices are sold at the correct price point with a strong marketing campaign than they can become more compelling than 3DS or Wii U are.

My point is there are a lot of factors at play, so sales may decrease or they could increase.

Ya they do more than games but it's still the same concept, u do ur Web browsing, social media, etc. on the phone when out of the house then use the tablet for those things when home.

If NX fails, we can blame marketing. And then we should hype the next Ninty console.

Yup.  Marketing was just one of the things that went wrong with the Wii U.  This entire gen (3DS/Wii U) was a case of Nintendo falling because of their hubris -- especially with the Wii U.  They just expected people to buy a weak console with an expensive gimmick along with no advertising or games based solely on the 'Wii' brand.  They were so confident in the 'Wii' name selling it that it almost looked like they just sent the console out there to die.  If anything can be salvaged from this gen, Nintendo probably learned a large lesson in humility and hopefully won't make the same mistakes with the NX.

I think in today's market with smartphones taking over, the 3DS would be lucky to sell 25 million in a 3-year span.

If consumers have to buy both the NX portable and home console in one package then the NX will also have to rebuild Nintendo's broken home console business and not just carry on with their portables. 30-40 million user-base would be a 2-3 times improvement over the Wii U.  If the NX can sell 35 million over a 4 year span then that will put it toe-to-toe with the XBox One's yearly sales and I really believe that with the enormous amount of 1st party software that the NX will be getting, Nintendo can be profitable at this level.

Nintendo, on their current path, is heading towards failure as 3DS sales are dropping rapidly.  I believe a success for Nintendo next generation would be if they can ome up with a new concept that can allow them to maintain their current profitability without having to lay-off staff.

Interestingly enough, that's not the reaction we got here on vgc. The wiiu won most polls that asked users which console they are planning on buying or which console will win the console race. They said that a 3d Mario game will do the trick. If not, definitely a 2d Mario. You just wait for Mario Kart, etc. Then people started blaming marketing and will do again, if NX fails.

I couldn't disagree more. The wiiu was destined to fail and anyone who was not a fan could see it. Mario Kart wii didn't seel 30m+ because of its insane popularity. It was a big franchise but a whole lot of its sales came from the installbase. Ninty IPs sell consoles, just not as many as Ninty or its fans would like to. I see no way Ninty can win a home console generation unless the come up with something innovative/a gimmick. As much as people try to deny it, Ninty/Sony/MS IPs are not enough for a console to become successful. Plus since the xb360 gneration, people are less likely to lose their achievements/trophies and move to a new system. I don't see how Ninty can make a comeback no matter what. Games like Splatoon are not enough and wiiu hardware sales clearly show that.