I doubt there is any way that anybody can say with confidence at this point whether the Switch will be a failure or not (save for a few top execs at Nintendo who can see the whole picture). The Switch's hardware is only one dimension of the product, we also need to see the games coming out for it and even more importantly how these games utilize the innovative features of the Switch. When the games and the console are taken together, is the Switch something that is new and relevant and does it do something unique with the way that people play games?
The Wii U failed because Nintendo failed to realize how quickly consumer tablets would take off (ie. the gamepad wasn't anything new or special by the time it came out) and, even worse, the gamepad really didn't do much to change the way that people played games until Super Mario Maker came out. If the Switch succeeds in doing both of these things at launch, it will be popular regardless of how powerful the GPU is.
It's obvious that the Switch is not going for powerful hardware and so the innovation route is now the only option that is open for Nintendo. Looking at the hardware alone is not enough to say whether the Switch will be an innovative product, we have to see its games too. Let's wait for January 12th.
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