Nintendo's unification for their console and handheld lines in the Switch has been a monumental success, having outsold every prior system from them besides the DS, and looking like even that one will be topped in time.

This stands in stark contrast to their 8th generation offerings, where the Wii U fell completely flat and the 3DS sold only half as much as the DS.

But what if history had taken a different path? What if, instead of the Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo unified the two lines a generation earlier? What if, in 2011, Nintendo had released the Switch with the same form factor, just with a much lower level of power, say somewhere around original Xbox/Wii in terms of raw power, but with more modern tech and more memory?

In this scenario, let's assume the system launches for $250 USD for the 2011 holiday season.

How do you think the following years play out?

Nintendo could have used Tegra 3 in 2011.

Basically as a mobile device it could have been specced out as:
1) 4x Cortex A9 CPU's @1 to 1.4ghz. Full ARM NEON support.
2) 1-2GB LPDDR3 1600 - 6.4GB/s of bandwidth. Fine for 480P.
3) 8 Shader core GPU @ 200-500mhz.

All in all, we could expect graphics capabilities around the Original Xbox/Wii level, but with larger data sets thanks to a larger pool of available DRAM.
It would have been very competent hardware 13 years ago.

In saying that, I don't regret having the 3DS instead... A 3D display makes the 3DS a very unique experience that is likely never to occur again.

It might have some of the really cool tech that the 3DS had, such as Spotpass/Street Pass. On the flip side, it might have a lot of the poorly-conceived and executed Wii U stuff that was sluggish and clunky - everything taking forever to load, the Miiverse, the convoluted and slow storefront (the Switch is a lot cleaner, but the speed of the site is still atrocious, even with current timeline Switch’s more advanced tech).

Mario Kart (7 and 8?) would have been substantially more popular.

But, I don’t think it would have had the same trajectory as the Switch because we probably wouldn’t be getting Breath of the Wild until the following generation. An important part of the success of the Switch is Breath of the Wild. Killer applications have most often been the make or break for Nintendo - and by killer app, I mean top tier system-sellers of a given decade - so we’re talking beyond Link to the Past, Mario 64, and more along the lines of Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros, and the original Pokémon - games (or features, such as the PS2’s DVD playback) responsible for single-handedly selling in the range of 10M+ consoles. If the Switch in 2012 couldn’t manage that, it would mean fewer sales.

The silver-lining of the Wii U generation is that it acted as a cool-down period after an arguably over-heated Wii generation. In other words, I think people, after that 4-5 year wait, were ready for Nintendo’s return to greatness; similar to how they were with the Wii after an 7 to 10-year hiatus (Nintendo was still doing remarkably well in the first 2/3rds of the N64 era, but a lot of that was due to the handheld line catching fire with Pokémon and GBC).

Vita released in early 2012 at $249.99 (likely at a loss), I don’t Nintendo could release an equally powerful device with a dock and detachable controllers for the same price.

A 2011 Switch for $249.99 would probably be more like a Wii+ in terms of visuals. I don’t think mobile tech was quite ready to make a compelling hybrid device in 2011.

For some reason I got my wires crossed and thought Vita came out earlier in 2011.

In light of Pemalite's suggestion (thanks for that btw) let's assume a Tegra 3.

So.... a PSVita?

I don't know about this one - no pandemic boost, competition from the Vita, and no backlog of portable Wii U titles to ensure a steady stream of content... the Switch was just too much at the right time and at the right place.

Yeah, Vita came out Dec 2011 in Japan and Feb 2012 in America/Europe. So something in between 3DS & Vita would basically be a Wii+. Obviously, Nintendo has shown time and time again that power isn’t everything but Wii couldn’t get many PS3/360 ports so this 2011 version of Switch likely wouldn’t be getting many PS3/360 ports either let alone PS4/XBO ports so the whole idea of it being a hybrid that can act as a legit console doesn’t really work.

What would the “impossible port” equivalents of Doom, Wolfenstein, Witcher, No Man’s Sky, Hellblade, Overwatch, Borderlands be for the 2011 Switch?

Switch was able to successfully pull off the hybrid concept that can act as a home console because mobile tech improved pretty drastically between the 3DS/Vita & Switch releases. Also, diminishing returns have become more apparent in each generation so being between PS3 & PS4 in 2017 isn’t going to look as dated as being between PS2 & PS3 in 2011.

I just don’t think mobile tech was quite where it needed to be in 2011 to pull off the concept.

The saving grace I guess would be Nintendo going one more generation without having to deal with the transition to HD and only having to focus on a single device means a steady flow of Nintendo software.

It would obviously be much more popular than Wii U (not hard to do) and probably more popular than 3DS but if it sold 100 million coming off the massive DS/Wii generation that sold ~255 million, it would probably seem like a failure.

Switch would be a clear leap over DS, but like a Wii Pro (which was like a GameCube Pro).
While the industry and Nintendo can be unpredictable, I don't see this earlier Switch coming close in sales to the actual Switch.
It would be a clear success, thanks to Pokémon.
There would be very little AAA third-party support. Wii had very little of that, Switch doesn't have a lot despite how popular of a platform it is.
A lot of the 3DS library would still happen in this timeline.
-Ocarina of Time Remake (no 3D)
-Super Mario 3D Land
-Mario Kart 7
-Fire Emblem: Awakening
-Animal Crossing: New Leaf
-The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
-Super Smash Bros, 4
-Pokemon Gen 6 and 7
And so on.
Switch (Switch 2 in this case) similar to how we actually know it would still launch in March 2017. The specs could be the same, or they might be slightly better than we got. At any rate, it would still be a generational leap over the 2011 Alternate History Switch.