I agree with this. There leaving themselves open to people comparing the Switch to the XB1/PS4 because of the statement that they made after the Switch reveal. Would people really be complaining if they specifically stated that the Switch was the successor to the 3ds? I highly doubt it considering the really significant step up between both systems.

Its pretty clear as others have already said that its going to be a handheld first.

Its also important to bring up what they actually said so this was the quote after the Switch reveal

http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-switch-a-home-gaming-system-first-and-foremost/

The full statement reads:

“Nintendo Switch is a home gaming system first and foremost. We have made no announcement regarding the future of Nintendo 3DS. Obviously with sales of almost 60 million 3DS portables worldwide, there’s still a huge hunger for new games, such as Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. There are many more games in the pipeline.

We have nothing to announce about the production status of Wii U. We announced in April 2016 that as we prepare for the launch of Nintendo Switch in March of 2017, Nintendo will ship 800,000 Wii U hardware units to the global market for this fiscal year. As a result, the inventory of Wii U hardware at retail will become harder to find. We encourage anyone who wants Wii U to communicate with their preferred retail outlet to monitor availability.