Ah, these discussions are always so amusing. If only because they spiral off into debates on semantics so fast.
As for the Wii's sales, you should expect no less. In fact, it was quite troubling that overall sales of hardware across available platforms were more or less static during the so-called 16-bit era. The difference in sales between the generation headed by the Atari 2600 and the generation headed by the NES was nothing short of amazing: we went from about 25 million units sold for the market leader and overall about 40 million units sold to 60 million units sold for the market leader and overall about 80 million. We saw a smaller but still meaningful jump between the SNES/Genesis era and the PS1/N64 era, and again between PS1/N64 era and PS2/GC/XB era.
Regarding how long they can keep it up, quite frankly, there's been no competition of note for the Wii in any of the sub-markets they've opened up. Until same-value competition does emerge in those sub-markets, they have a monopoly of sorts. And thanks to the issue of market image, most companies aren't going to go within 100 yards of the market Nintendo has actually harnessed. Eventually we will see some of the obvious values challenged by the incumbents (Sony, Microsoft), but the odds of either of those companies producing a console that is not only family-friendly, but also inviting to current non-gamers, is very slim.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
