I do not think that launch price is important at all, especially if you have no competition. I'm surprised it sold that many units at all, but then again I have my own opinions about handheld hardware numbers which I think are completely overblown and not at all reflective of actual install base.

No.  You said a few days ago that the 3DS and New 3DS are different generations.  That means your total for "this gen" is way off.

Right?

Well done Professor Layton. Do you think that PS4 and PS4 Pro are different gens?

We will see then

No, they're doing to because there's no technological reason to have separate hardware platforms anymore, and a portable home console is the most forward thinking way to trojan horse that idea. It's not a combination of a handheld and a home console the same way a laptop isn't a combination of a smartphone and a PC. There's also no reason to believe that a handheld Switch (as well as a home console) won't come later.

Nintendo is acting out of cunning. An act of desperation would have been a safe and traditional home console.

Exactly. I've learned CGI. And Scorpio is doubly definitely not a different gen.

Was PS2 a fluke too? No home console would reach it.

How can you say the handheld market isn't in decline? The 3DS is going end up at maybe 75 million units, Nintendo is about to launch a Mario game on mobile, and we've heard absolutely nothing about a true successor to the 3DS...

It has declined, spin it how you like though.

The only problem with handhelds is the wall they hit in evolution. PSP and DS continued to offer industry leading mobile experiences. The inclusion of music, video, and internet on handhelds created a surge in sales in the handheld market. With Vita and 3DS both Sony and Nintendo halted innovation and evolution in the handheld industry.

Had Vita and 3DS offered 3G with full voice and text support at launch, and later release 4G models across all major carriers, then the portable market would have continued to grow as rapidly as we saw in the previous cycle of handhelds. Instead the portable market has been reduced back to its pre PSP and DS days.

If Sony and Nintendo where to offer new handhelds with 4G, voice, and text across all major carriers those devices would eventually gain back all of the sales that have been lost in the Vita and 3DS era. It is just a matter of them doing it, the demand is there for the right device (and no the Xperia Play is no indication oc how a gaming phone would sell. You can't draw buttons on a rock and call it a gaming phone. It actually has to have support, games, network, apps etc., otherwise, just as the Xperia Play was, it is absolutely meaningless).