There are two things I consider for a console to be next gen.

1. Is it a follow up to a previous gen console?

2. Is it a considerable upgrade from the best of the last gen?

If a console fits just one of these I consider it next gen. For example the Wii U fits one of these so it's next gen.

EDIT: PCs, Handhelds, Smart Phones/Tablets have their own generations completely seperate from home consoles.

Just adding a poll to this thread and thought about a major logical flaw with that thinking.

The xbox wouldn't be any gen as it's not a successor. If you simply state "it has to

Yeap. That's what I go with. It'd make the Wii part of the 6th gen and Wii U part of the 7th, but I find it hard to justify why it should be any other way. 

 be a successor" then that makes it impossible for new consoles to enter the market.

That's why only two questions matter:

1. Is it a follow up to a previous gen console?

2. Is it a considerable upgrade from the best of the last gen?

Just one of these makes defines next gen.

it's a next gen console but with last gen specs it's a next last gen, truly innovative

"Next gen" refers to the next iteration of hardware. Power isn't part of the equation. You're not in the same generation as your kids just because you're as tall as them.

How though are you linking 1 & 2? They seem very far removed from one another. You're saying the PS4 could be technically inferior to the PS3, but a new console, say Console X made by Apple would have to be a considerable upgrade from the best of the last gen to be considered next gen.

I'd say that consoles simply need to adhere to point 2 otherwise it's just an off-shoot of the current gen, no different from things like Move, Eyetoy and Kinect. 

Thats a contradiction. How can you determine the next iteration of hardware if you are not looking at power?

True.

However if a man has two sons and the first son has a child in 1950 and the second son has a child in 2000, both those children are of the same generation.

If the first son has a second child in 2000, all three are of the same generation.

If the first son's first child has a girl in 2000 she is of the next generation even though she is the same age as the second son's child and the first son's second child.

Make sense?

Move and Kinect are current gen addons and are not stand alone consoles.

It doesn't matter to me if Sony was stupid enough to releases a PS4 less powerfull than the PS3. It would be the follow up and therefor next gen. It is however, completely unlikely to happen.

Sony's authority. Anything else is simply fanboy rhetoric.

Because the Wii U is the successor to the Wii, which was 7th gen, and was the successor to the GCN, which was 6th gen.

kain_kusanagi said:

Yes, but the Wii U/ PS4 + 720 release time gap will likely be no bigger than the one between the PS2 and the GCN/Xbox.