I think Nintendo internally is already prepping for the Wii U to be a relative failure, they've gone through this before with the GameCube and are smart enough to know in this business very, very few consoles ever turn around after being on the market for 1 1/2 years already. In fact I don't think its ever happened before.
Even the PS3 really had started to stabilize by this point in its life cycle ... it sold 280k for Feb. 2008 NPD for example, the equivalent point for the Wii U is still spinning its tires stuck at 82.5k for the equivalent month, even with a decent release (DKC) that month.
Wii U will need Mario Kart just to sell *at* GameCube levels, it's well below right now.
IMO internally at Nintendo right now they are fully focused on the QoL platform and the next Nintendo handheld platform, which likely will double as the architecture for their next home device too. They are just going to ride the Wii U out and hope to make some extra money off fat profit margined NFC plastic toys.
Iwata is just buying time at this stage, if he can get out of that June meeting with minimal damage in his shareholders vote, it buys him the time to see the QoL thing and to oversee the launch of the next Nintendo portable/hybrid or whatever hardware. Those are going to be the next two pillars of Nintendo's business.
