Many/probably most people who will enjoy Nintendo smartphone apps simply will never graduate up the dedicated consoles/handhelds.
And I think Nintendo knows that.
Partly why they opted to choose this route ... they know now they weren't going to get these people using dedicated hardware no matter what ... might as well make money off them rather than making $0 off them.
The more interesting scenario is perhaps who knows Nintendo's next hit IP may actually be born on iOS/Android, not a dedicated home/portable platform.
Iwata's kinda tried to push that Nintendo isn't just dedicated video games in recent interviews he's specifically gone out of his way to remind people that Nintendo was around long before dedicated video games were and they used to be involved in many different businesses. Very likely going forward they are headed back in that direction again.
