As we know, Sony and Nintendo are pretty much opposites when it comes to their handhelds and home consoles. PS4 is doing well, but the Vita is pretty abysmal, considering its competing against 3DS, phones, and the standards set by the PSP. The 3DS is holding well despite the rise of mobile, but the Wii U is probably closing in on its final year as the home console for Nintendo due to low sales and little to no support from anyone other than Nintendo (which is also declining because Nintendo can only do so much at this point).

Of course, there are a variety of reasons why the 3DS and PS4 are succeeding where the Wii U and the Vita aren't. When it comes to profits, I can't imagine the Vita doing much for Sony besides bringing in third-party royalties or the Wii U bringing in a little profit any more longer as the games are coming less and less. As we've seen with Nintendo this gen, its incredibly difficult to support both consoles even when you release most (if not all) your big guns on both consoles, especially when they are significantly different from one another. Sony appears to not pay much attention anymore to the Vita while giving most of its resources to the thriving PS4, which is fine and smart for them since it has greater potential.

So it does beg the question, due to the technology and how audiences are considering home and handheld consoles these days, is there a point to really create and support two consoles in anymore?

So they still can make a little profit just in case if their main business failed somehow.

For Sony no, Nintendo maybe although the 2 can merge

Sony droped support for Vita long time ago, while Nintendo is probably going with unified platform, that means they will support one platform with one or more devices and not any more two totally different platforms like before.

I think it does makes sense, if they have same eco-system.

There are people who don't care about handhelds at all, and then there are those who prefer them. Given how much mobile GPUs have advanced, next generation of handhelds could be capable of running same games as home consoles, only with lower res/effects and you should be able to come home and plug them (wirelessly) into your TV set.

Merging is the best possible solution. Handheld games keep getting bigger and bigger, there's no way to provide for both markets at once and keep a decent software output, specially when the 1st party games are almost alone. Sony realized this and sacrificed the Vita to focus on the PS4. Nintendo will probably unify their libraries with the NX.

Yes. Preference.

For Sony, it's not worth it but for nintendo it is. I think nintendo is trying to make it easier to port games between handheld and home console by coming up with some kind of OS that works on all of their hardware where the games work on either. Maybe, they'll do cross buy. Who knows on that.

Some people think that nintendo is trying to unify both handheld and home console. I doubt it because nintendo found success with both types of consoles so why converge 'em and put all of their eggs in one basket. Sony will because it's home consoles are generally very successful. Anyway, NX is more likely to be a handheld releasing late this year with a home console next year with a similar name.

I think it will be the other way around. If the NX is trying to unify both HH and HC libraries, they'll need a handheld as beefy as possible. Home console first and, once they iron the handheld out, they release it (plus 3DS is getting more games than WiiU). Unified library, maybe with some exclusives for the home console due to power constrains.

Yes, we got that rumour (that in some was is confirmed) saying 3DS will have pretty strong lineup this year with some new games, wile Wii U not even closely such a good line up with have only one unannounced new game.