As much as the Wii was an anomaly, the Wii U, hopefully, will be an anomaly as well.
First, Nintendo needs to look closely at the Wii U and understand why it failed. Simply put, it was a catastrophe of design principles. Weak AND expensive? Centered around the idea that the gamepad is revolutionary but without the means to prove it? Sacrificing the base performance of the console itself in order to include an expensive gimmick?
The Wii U was a commercial failure waiting to happen.
Nintendo, working with a year's head-start and time gained from the abandonment of the Wii, should have, at the least, achieved moderate success. Instead, they committed blunder after blunder and proved that they did not understand their audience. For a business, that last part is anathema. You cannot survive as a business without understanding your audience.
Perceived value is everything to consumers. It varies from person to person, obviously, but you're still going to have a bell curve with most people falling in the middle. I think many of the millionaires running large corporations lose sight of what value represents to most of their potential customers-- the PS3 and Wii U are perfect examples. Actually, the original price of the 3DS is probably a good example, too.
If the next Nintendo console has an expensive gimmick that they are unable to justify to the average person then it will likely be failure.
Ramping up to compete with Sony and Microsoft is possible--they have the money to make it possible--but it would be very expensive to play catch-up after turning their heads and ignoring the rest of the industry for so long. On the other paw, I think a low-end machine from Nintendo could do quite well; if it's cheap, then expectations are lowered, it becomes much more viable as a "second console", and it becomes a great option for parents buying for younger children.
Nintendo just has to better understand the market and how their new device will fit into that market.
1) Offer good value.
2) Stay profitable.
3) Cheap gimmicks are fine but if you go with an expensive gimmick then you damn well better be able to convince people that your gimmick is worth every penny.
