There will never be a 'last gen' lol.  Videogames have only grown in popularity.  The current generation is the largest one ever, by install base size.   If anything, there are more generations to come than there have been so far since the 80's.

Smartphone/ tablet games just bring more people into the fold, and help console games sell.   Just look at how YouTube views of Nintendo Direct on smartphones have caused Animal Crossing to explode in Japan.  The game routinely sells 70-80k copies per week, and it's been out since the beginning of November.

Sure, there has been a change in what types of games sell well on consoles, but certainly the size of the market such as it is, at the tail end of an unusually long cycle, is still far bigger than the market was in 2005 before Xbox 360 was released and GameCube, PS2, and Xbox were all in steep decline.  That's how far the industry has come...even at the weakest part of the cycle, when new machines are about to replace old machines, we're still far bigger than we were five or even ten years ago.

To put things into perspective... GameCube sold just under 22 million in seven years, and the system had absolutely no multimedia functions.  It was a pure game console.  With the types of mainstream applications that most of us find useful for everyday life built-in to Wii U, I don't see how it couldn't at least have some minor cross-over success like 360 had.  Free video chat, all major streaming services, etc.

Wii U will easily double the GameCube install base, and that's not such a bad thing.  That puts the Wii U 20 million ahead of GameCube, and 10 million ahead of N64, which even at 32 million was an extremely popular and successful game system.

tablets and phone arent rivals for consoles, for example:psp have incredible games and never a phone will have a god of war, gran turismo, pokemon, etc like a console.

I actually think they aren't too far off on Wii U's sales, but I think it'll be more in the high end of their prediction. I think 50-70 million seems more likely. I still see Wii U as the Super SNES to the Wii, so I think it'll sell about 2/3 the numbers Wii managed, like the SNES did in comparison to the NES. Also, even though sales will be underwhelming compared to Wii, Wii U will be more of a slow burner. Using the current trends of Wii U sales will not help as it's far too early, price is still high, and very few significant games have been released. There is a major flaw in the thinking that Wii U is "similar to this gen consoles." Do this gen consoles have a tablet controller? Do they have Nintendo games, or even many games similar to them? Although the numbers I don't believe will be far off, their reasoning behind them are.. But then again, it's Patcher, what do you expect..

They highly overestimated PS4 sales IMO, and NeXbox is probably close to reality. I see Sony as a company on the decline, while MS has gained a lot of ground from last generation. They have effectively taken over the US market, the biggest gaming market, and have the UK market, which is probably the largest in Europe. Sony has Japan, which is a dwindling market, and some portions of Europe, which is going through a major financial crisis. PS4 will also probably be the most expensive console yet again, which will set them back a bit sales wise. But again, still way too early to say, especially since MS hasn't even revealed their cards yet on the 720.

+1 for common sense. :)

If you sell 240 million units of consoles why on earth would these companies not follow up with a new generation after this one?

Are you trying to be the new Pacther with that number?

The GameCube however lacked not just multimedia functions....but games as well. 
Does the Wii U do bluray films? No. 3rd party support? No. 8th gen games (Shadow Fall, Drive Club etc)? No. So what reason exactly does your average gamer who already owns an 360 or PS3 have to buy a Wii U? Well looking at the sales, the answer is clear: they simply don't. 

I will bet you that the Wii U will not easily double the GC install base. The fact that Nintendo slashed the predicted sales by 20% tells me that Nintendo haven't thought this through and their customers are at least 20% less than what they expected. That kind of corporate misfire tends to mean the item in question will have a rocky time. 

See above & I highlight the 20% cock-up by Nintendo on their estimated sales. Btw any chance if you know that they are working on sales or shipped? because if it is sales, then they will miss that reduced figure by a large percent, but as they said they'd already "sold" 3 million units, I have a feeling they are talking about shipped rather than sold units. 

Yet again you're using the temporary circumstances of now as a basis for long term claims, which doesn't work in this instance either. Of course it's not selling NOW; it's only big exclusive is a game pitched at audiences outside its price range. But the price will change, as will the games as big hitters like Mario Kart, HD Zelda, Smash Bros, etc arrive. Nintendo's first party franchises are something Wii U offers that PS4 and Nextbox cannot.

An abysmal start does not mean an abysmal lifetime: PS3 and 3DS proved that.

The PS4 will be in the last place sales wise this gen. Not sure who´s gonna win it, need to se Nextbox first.