| Kantor said: Ouch. You don't want Microsoft against you. You just don't. |
Microsoft's opponents, such as Google and Apple, no longer seem to hold Microsoft in awe. I don't think Nintendo does either.
On topic:
I've been wondering a bit along those lines myself, for many of the reasons you listed. But ultimately, I don't see Nintendo being the same threat to Microsoft that Sony is. Sony's entire aim in the gaming market was to become the all-in-one entertainment box, so as to start making real money by selling you all of your entertainment needs. Gaming was the hook to sell you everything else.
Nintendo is taking baby steps in that direction, but for precisely the opposite reason. The stuff you cited aren't being included to independently make Nintendo money; I doubt Nintendo has any interest in creating the massive infrastructure required for that sort of multi-media empire, and setting that up would take at least a decade, if not much longer.
Instead, Nintendo is using these non-gaming features to lure people into gaming. Nintendo itself said that the "channels" are there solely to give folks a reason to turn their Wii on as much as possible, with the ultimate goal of getting/keeping them interested in playing games. Everytime you check tomorrow's weather on your Wii, there's a chance you'll pop in some game too, since you're already there.
Short summary: Nintendo's not interested in Microsoft's pie, so going after them would mostly be a waste of time and energy. The only Microsoft area I see being affected by Nintendo's rise is Direct X, and I don't know enough about that to say if it's worth waging an expensive war with Nintendo to maintain (or even how deep the threat goes).
