People forget the Saturn launched at $400 in the US, which was insanely expensive for that time. Inflation taken into account that's about $600 today.
The Saturn also launched like 8 months after the 32X.
Not 3-4 years.
The DS launched about 3 1/2 years after the GBA that would be a better comparable.
Also really people are not grasping the concept of Nintendo going towards a ecosystem based future where the hardware is largely just immaterial.
The games are the main attraction, you'll be able to buy the hardware in whatever "flavor" you like, but the form factor will largely become unimportant. Just like Apple releases iPhone 4/4s/5/5s/5c/iPad 2/3/4/Air/etc. ... you're going to see more Nintendo hardware in the future I think but they will all basically play the same games.
The Wii U/3DS will be the last Nintendo hardware that operates in the old 1980s-style of the console being "king" and then having the entire ecosystem tied only to it and then the ecosystem dying when the console dies. Those days are coming to an end IMO, Iwata's comments basically confirm it.
Think of it in the past the console/portable was the "sun" and the games were the planets that orbited around the sun. In the future the games/software eShop will be the sun, the hardware will orbit around them (this is the Apple/Android model that Nintendo will switch to).
