Perception of Nintendo Handhelds vs. Home Consoles pre-Switch

[Wman1996]

Nintendo handhelds have always had the perception of popularity, save perhaps for the first 6 months or so of 3DS with the launch price and software people didn't care about.
NES/Famicom and SNES/Super Famicom were very popular. NES was borderline unopposed, with only the Sega Master System being a blip on the radar. SNES had stiff competition from Sega in North America and some other regions but was the clear leader globally by the end of the generation.
N64 had a strong start in sales and public perception despite droughts. But after even Ocarina of Time in late 1998 couldn't even start to close the gap with PS1, the writing was on the wall. After FY 99-00, N64 had a soft death in hardware sales. It was also the start of a soft death in software. The big first-party games globally on N64 in 2001 were games that had already released in Japan in 2000. Ultimately, PS1's CDs in comparison to N64's cartridges was perhaps the biggest factor to why globally N64 was only a moderate rival to PS1 for the long haul. And in Japan, PS1 destroyed N64. Even Sega Saturn narrowly outsold N64 in Japan, despite not even selling 10 million units globally.
GameCube continued the problems of the N64 with an unfriendly format. Yes, miniDVDs were cheaper than cartridges but also capped out at about 1.46 GB. Even 2 GameCube discs was still over a 1.5 GB less than one standard PS2 or Xbox disc. GameCube (up to that time) was the worst-selling Nintendo home console and seen as the kid's toy thanks to its lunchbox design and lack of quality M-rated games. Suffice to say, GameCube was destroyed by PS2 in every market we can think of. Even a newcomer like Xbox managed to outsell GameCube by over 2 million units globally.
Wii was a fluke. It was seen as for kids and grandparents, with nongamers and casual gamers in general. But it sold like hotcakes. But there was not a balance in terms of its sales. Hardware sales dived in 2011 and a lot of quality software was drying up too. Not to the extent of the less popular Nintendo platforms, but way more than Switch.
Wii U brought back Nintendo's lack of popularity in the home console space. We went from Nintendo's best-selling home console ever to their worst. After selling 3.06 million units in the calendar year of 2012 (Wii U launched in November and December), Wii U absolutely tanked after. If your console is only surpassing 1 million units per quarter in Q4, you're doomed. Q4 2012, 2013, 2014. and 2015 were the only quarters that Wii U sold more than a million units.
TL:DR - Nintendo's handheld platforms are very successful, their software is very iconic and profitable, but their home console popularity is very inconsistent.