I believe $299 would be the perfect price, with the wiiu tablet and wiimoteplus and nunchuck, and NintendoLand included.

I get that Nintendo has found its niche as the lesser expensive hardware option compared to SonySoft.  However, many fans hoped, and assumed, that with the huge success of Wii,  they would go for "the best of both worlds" in the next gen...powerful with a casual attraction. Microsoft is attempting this, but they lack the charm, IPs and credibility of Nintendo.  

Some view taking a loss on HW as a negative, but I say its *** reaming your competition, going for the jugular. Instead of being a passive aggressive, slick *****, pretending to be a secondary non-threating to SonySoft console, Nintendo should go back to being THE U...LTIMATE solution. Future proof the sumbitch, and send Sony to its grave.  Lets face it, Microsoft wrecked Sony pretty badly, eating into its install base like termites, then you have Nintendo, trollalala, capitalizing passive aggressively with Wii.  Now, I don't say this b/c I hate sony ( i have a PS3), but being a Nintendo fan primarily, favor their interests the most. I think Nintendo's conservative due to being 3 bigtime competitors on the market, forcing N to cater to the cheaper crowd.  IMO Ninty would be more aggressive on the HW front if there was 1 less formidable foe, and Sony is the most vulnerable at this point. Kick rocks I say, this aint the 90s. Blu ray in a digital new world?  Fail. Sony's old fashioned, just aint cool no more ;)

Ninty is in a great position to future proof their HW with a 1 yr head start. On the outside, they have a badass Ferrari of a hardcore/all around console, those controllers are f*n dope...but its still the INSIDE that counts, you need real GUTS, so I'm hoping Nintendo does the right thing, and surprises all with a power boost for the final HW.  PS360 fans may talk **** now, but if they see their friends playing the beast that is Wii U, a huge segment will jump ship.  So aim for at least the min. req. for full feature set of UE4 engine (1 teraflop gpu it seems?), get all the multiplats and  big N will be king again. Employ "Vita killer strategy" -  $349 launch price, and when the comp. comes out, drop U to $299 where that very well may be a locked price for 4-5 yrs.

Take that loss, to wreck your foes, Nintendo.

so... the wii-u will probably only be $250 at launch.

What's that have to do with anything?  PS3 and Xbox weren't really upgradable except when it came to storage space, and the Wii U has that with external hard drives.  Nintendo was the only manufacturer I can think of that really upgraded there system in the way you describe, with the N64 Ram, unless you count all the CD add ons from the 16-bit era.  I do agree that leaving the option to upgrade your console once in a generation would be pretty sick.

I highly doubt it'd be $250 inc Nintendoland.

Due to inflation, $250 at the launch of the Wii represents somewhere around $280+ today. A $250 Wii U would be cheaper than a $250 Wii.

The Wii U is also more powerful than the Wii, even taking into account the later launch date, and it also includes a tablet controller - much more expensive than a wiimote. The storage space is much higher, increasing much faster than Moore's Law suggests flash drives should increase by.

$300 minimum imo, potentially $350.

Incorrect. Nintendo has never launched a new console at a loss.  GC began losing Nintendo money once the price dropped to $99.

Nintendo and their ambiguity on the subject of Wii U. This doesn't give us any more info than what we already have. Wii U will either be on-par with PS3/360 specs and sell conservatively or slightly more powerful than PS3/360 and sell at slightly higher price than their own standard pricing.

Nintendo did not get to where they are by trying to under sell the compition. They have made a profit every generation and that is all that matters. On top of that even in gens they did not have the number 1 concole they still made more profit than the compition. Nintendo doesn't need to be number one, they need to sell their hardware at a profit and keep their business going as is. Why switch to a strategy that makes no profit? So they can end up like sony did this gen? Nintendo can not wreck ms this way, ms has too much cash and would just under cut them.