You are certainly wrong about the handhelds.
The only reason you consider the Wii U a generation "behind" is because you are comparing it to Microsoft and Sony's platforms across the two generations. That's fine, whatever. Majority Rules, I suppose.
There is no such majority in the handheld domain, where there are only two combatants. One of these two is Nintendo, who has dominated the handheld market for 30 years and has never been outsold by any effort of their competitors. The other is Sony, whose current handheld is stalling at under 15% market share.
Nintendo's strategy with their handheld consoles has nothing to do with Sony's machines. Nintendo has been making handhelds since before Sony ever dreamt of entering the video game industry. To suggest that Nintendo waited to see (or guessed) what the Vita would be capable of, then consciously adjusted the 3DS to ensure it would be "one generation behind" that is laughable.
Nintendo's handhelds have consistently been roughly on par with their home consoles' capabilities two generations prior. The GameBoy, released shortly before the SNES, was less advanced than the NES, lacking even color visuals. The GameBoy Color was much more comparable to the NES, and released shortly after the N64. The GameBoy Advance was roughly on par with the SNES, and released shortly before the GameCube. The DS, released shortly before the Wii, was most comparable to the N64 in power. And the 3DS falls in the same range as the GameCube. It sounds as though their next handheld will be aiming for Wii U-like power, finally bucking the trend.
