In Reply To #3
I don't think the Wii U is a failure in itself, I think it's just a sign of Nintendo running out of options for innovation, and that could be the start of a gradual decline. The Wii U is certainly no Saturn, nor even a Dreamcast. One link away from that article is a mention of
the original Wii outselling the Wii U by half a million units in the same quarter.
Now, you could say the same thing happened with Sony when you look at sales. The PS2 outsold the PS3 for ages. However I think there are fundamental differences in consumer expectations between the two. When a new PS or Xbox comes out, people expect "mostly the same as previous offerings but better", and that's what they usually get - sometimes with a surprise thrown in later like Kinect.
I suppose Nintendo used to be like that too, but then with the original Wii they gave themselves a
super hard act to follow. The main new selling feature of the Wii U is... different to (but I'd argue not necessarily better than) a Wiimote. The Wii U can do everything the Wii can do plus more, but I don't think most people care about the "more" enough to put down the extra cash over the regular Wii.
I think that it'll end up being viewed a bit like the GameCube. Not a failure, not really known for being a success either. The difference is that previously their hand-held dominance was not under threat at all, whereas now they have iOS and Android to worry about there too. It seems to me that to maintain a successful hardware division, they will need to come out with something as revolutionary as the original Wii within the next few years.