(It's apparently from the same source that leaked the Vita specs and was the first one with the Cafe controller screen rumors.)
On the one hand, it definitely makes sense for them to try something dramatically different at this point.
On the other hand, if they have two circle pads and de-emphasize the 3D, mightn't it seem too much like a Vita with less graphics and no 3G?
I'm sure they've been planning on some kind of new hardware since launch, though not necessarily this. They wouldn't have put the stylus there if they didn't. Seriously, moving the stylus over there is one of the stupidest things they've ever done. I'm actually more okay with the location of the Start and Select buttons than I've been on any Nintendo handheld other than the Game Boy/Pocket/Color and the Micro. Hopefully they'll also implement that feature that the prototype had where you can switch the position of the D-pad and the circle pad (though it's more likely it'll be permanently fixed in the Wii U layout).
the company is hard at work designing a $10 analog stick peripheral for the current 3DS
...How would that work? Where would you put it? Would it just be laid on top of the buttonless part of the right half? And then when you fold it up, you have to put the stick into your pocket along with the 3DS? Or are they still expecting everyone to carry purses and messenger bags everywhere? Or have they bought into the lie that a handheld console doesn't have to be portable anymore? The day that handhelds stop being portable is the day that handhelds have no reason to exist. Why sit in your room and play on a little screen that looks almost as good as a PS3 when for the same price you could be playing an actual PS3? Why play a two-screened handheld in your living room that has Gamecube-quality graphics in 240p when you could play in your same living room on two screens in 1080p?
The problem is still games. There are none. Surely Nintendo recognizes that. The fact that their solution to that problem is apparently to make it more like a console is troubling. The 3DS still has no launch title, and probably never will (because really the only big feature is 3D, which a non-trivial portion of the population can't use, either because they're too young, missing an eye, or get sick while using it). No single game justifies its existence as a new console the way Tetris did for the Game Boy and Feel the Magic did for the DS. The only other Nintendo platforms that didn't have a game to justify its existence at this point in their life were the Gamecube, the Virtual Boy, and the Pokemon Mini. (And the DS, but, as previously alluded to, Sega saved them on that)
Five months after launch and the next big things we're looking forward to are another N64 port and another sequel to Mario Galaxy. And Mario Kart, which, of course, will sell systems, and seems reasonably portable, but it's one game. Everyone played Melee, yet still nobody bought a Gamecube.
Nintendo needs to stop making PSP games and start making Game Boy games. And I need to stop ranting about this.
Also, if they put out a new model with the same battery life, they deserve to fail, because it will show that they truly don't get it.