My suggestion for this thread title is:

"'Can the WiiU take back some of the business Nintendo lost from Sony and Microsoft with the help of tablet-casual gamers"

Or isn't this thread about changing the thread title?

I don't think they did much of that though, sure there will have been young children having them bought for them, but this happens all the time.

For older people that the Wii was supposedly popular with, I believe a lot aren't themselves the owners of the console. Like my parents and grandparents first proper experience with video games was with the Wii I own, they didn't get one themselves. Same for 2 of my aunts and uncles. Wii Fit was probably the only thing that brought in any significant number of "soccer moms". In fact I think I remember before Wii Fit Nintendo had done a study showing over 90% of current Wii owners owned a last gen console, I don't think it went into much more detail but if 90%+ owned a last gen console then adding those other gamers who skipped a gen or were primarily PC before (there are a few on this forum) then add in those who could still be counted as gamers due to the time they spend on flash-like games you are left with very few people who were actually new to gaming and most of them would be because they were too young.

Sure the proportion will have changed since then but ignoring youngsters I doubt the Wii has pulled in much more than a couple million new gamers to the point of them purchasing the console.

I'd say no as the business you're talking about is I believe mainly mobile - i.e apps on a mobile device. Unless it turns out the Wii U controller is designed to be taken with you (which would seem to compete with 3DS then) it would only serve as a delivery device for home based apps.

I guess it might compete with tablets used in the home a bit, but I really have to doubt a lot of people will decide the Wii U controller tablet is better that an iPad or Samsung tablet at home.

So I'm thinking no.

To a certain extent, yes Nintendo has done some of this in the past but that really wasn't my point ... What I was saying was that "casual" gamers who are not traditional console buyers picking up smart-phones and tablets to play videogames is not (necessarily) a bad thing for console manufacturers.

From what I have seen, the biggest barrier to getting non-gamers to want to own a console for themself has little to do with the hardware and it is mostly about getting them to pick up a controller for the "first time". While it seems counter-intuitive, growth in mobile games helps Nintendo (and any console manufacturer) because they don't have to get so many people to play games for the "first time" to be successful at targeting "casual" gamers.

Now, on an individual basis, these gamers may not buy all that many game and/or systems but their impact on a household basis can be huge ...

I can't comment on your conclusion because your premise is flawed.

You say that we have "seen the ipad and others slowly take more and more territory away from the consoles."

You may think you have seen that, but I have not. As with the Wii, the Ipad's effect on gaming is to expand the market, not to steal customers from others.

Nintendo can't reclaim what they never even lost.

So the Wii U is competing with the ipad in much the same sense that it is competing with cars, fridges, holidays and high class prostitutes?

Can we start tracking sales of those things on VGChartz?

I think its a viable alternative to people wanting to read digital books, newspapers and magazines at home, without spending 400 dollars.

Its also preferable to carrying around that 400 dollar device on public transport.

Survey Shows More Play On Mobile, Less On Consoles January 6, 2012

Just as i suspected. The IPad is dead if it can't compete with the industry already so huge in home entertainment, televisions and consoles.

Where is Apple TV? What are they going to do to kick the door in on Xbox and Playstation?

Saying that Nintendo is losing business to mobile is the same as saying that Coca Cola is losing business to oranges.