John Lucas:
Theres no proven link between handhelds and consoles hooked up to the TV. You can excel at one and fail at the other as the Gamecube proved. Nintendo's future in the home console business is not ensured by their success with their handheld business aside from one being a financial safety net to the other. If there was a strong link the Nintendo Gamecube would have done far better than it did in actuality.
You mention feature creep as protecting Nintendos handheld business, however I doubt that is actually the case. The important consideration which keeps both a handheld gaming console and a cellular phone in the pockets of users around the world is not due to having too many features overcomplicating the device, its due to having too little battery life to perform both functions. It is a great inconvenience for people to run out of power on their cellular phone and a lesser one for them to run out of power on their gaming device. Remember the little game called Snake? Its probably one of the most successful games of all time and its one of the reasons why Nokia is the cellular phone powerhouse it is today. Once battery and phone technology improves sufficiently the dominance of Nintendo with handhelds becomes threatened by the Cell phone.
For the home consoles, no company has a manifest destiny. Nintendo made a strong move with the Wii, however it should also be considered a dangerous one. They have cracked open entire realms of possibility for the future of the console and in doing so they have given their competition the chance to blindside them in return. Both Sony and Microsoft have reasons to explore alternative interface methods from within and outside of their respective gaming enterprises. For Sony its the power of their televisions and media operations and Microsoft its their operating system and service operations. Nintendos snake in the grass is their conflict of interest between their 1st party software and hardware business to the opportunities that exist outside of their control. The crux of the issue for them is a company which is able to take advantage of strategic partnerships and let go of full control which is something they have been unwilling to do and was the source of their first fall.
Tease.
