Nintendo's always had an easier time selling handhelds than consoles.

The GameCube library slaughters the GBA honestly (which was a lot of old SNES ports), but the GameCube sold no where close the GBA even with the benefit of two extra years to sell without a successor.

No ways, if N releases a new console within the next 2 years, then they should either refund my WiiU or go on without my future support.

Again, i'd suggest that Nintendo's in position to do that even if Wii U ends up a roaring success. The gamepad works as a "natural successor" or a "necessary retreat," which is long-term strategic brilliance.

Nintendo's third party conundrum is a catch-22 for alot of reasons.

First of all, every gen Nintendo makes it abundantly clear that their consoles are all about Nintendo games, and 3rd parties come second. This is all well and good, but as a result of this practice they refuse to share the spotlight with 3rd party developers and publishers and do things such as promote certain AAA titles as the "definitive" version on their console, something that both Sony and M$ have both been doing for well over a decade now.

For example... any time you see a TV commercial for a major 3rd party release like GTA, COD, Assassin's Creed, Madden, FIFA, whatever, it's almost always followed at the end with a promo for the Xbox or PlayStation brands (i.e. "preorder now for so-and-so console"). And commercials for 3rd party exclusives focus even more on their respective console.

Now ask yourself this question... when was the last time you saw a commercial for a major 3rd party release that was immediately followed with a promo for a Nintendo console? Exactly.

The other half of the catch-22 problem is that Nintendo's main audience just doesn't care that much about these types of games. Just look at COD on the Wii U for example... the biggest selling franchise year after year, and it all BLOPSII managed was an absolutely pathetic 200k sales WW according to this site, and COD Ghosts didn't even register yet on the charts!

The only thing I don't agree with is that Nintendo needs to replace the Wii U in 2 years. It would put them in an even worse position. If they did that, the Wii U would be a complete waste of time. The least they need to do is make the Wii U profitable enough, and then replace it.

I suppose I did come off a little bit dickish by saying that but I'll explain by bolding what they are in your OP:

Bolded 1: Those consoles did essentially fall short due to lacking the resources developers needed to achieve their visions. By the same their full potential was tapped into, the damage was done and we already had systems with more impressive accolades by that time (Dreamcast against the N64, OG Xbox against the Gamecube)

Bolded 2: They've done it before with the Virtual Boy, and the N64 still retained SNES-level sales in North America. (coming up short in Europe and Japan for entirely different reasons)

Bolded 3: You have to look at why those consoles were successful rather than going off of a trivial coincidence though, I don't think the majority of the Wii's demographic could care less if it had Dreamcast visuals or Wii U visuals. Again, the PS1 did essentially win it's generation because of experiences that were impossible on the N64 (you're probably better off comparing it to the Sega Saturn on that front), and the PS2 gave the PS1 install base every reason and more to stay on board.

Bolded 4: Just because a system doesn't have a meme-worthy hardware specific issue spelled out doesn't mean it's immune to hardware problems. The Gamecube and Wii have both had disc drive issues. The NES had the 72-pin error (albeit, I think this one's blown out of proportion given how much more popular than any other system around that time). The Wii U is far too new and isolated, at least for now, to make rational judgement on would be hardware issues.

Bolded 5: If that was the case, the 360 should've stagnated years ago. It's still going strong on the premise of 3rd party support alone since 2010.

Bolded 6: You're right, there's yet to be a 3D Mario game break 15 million yet. History has proven that 2D Mario games are generally the more viable option as long as they aren't marketed and advertised almost identically to their predecessors. NSMBU is the only bad egg so far.

So I'll finish by saying, I don't think it'd be a terrible idea for Nintendo to drop the Wii U in favor of a more tailored system or see it through the rest of the generation either way. They're certainly in a better position to than Sega were on both accounts.

I dunno if I'm in a minority here but personally that's EXACTLY what made me go for the GBA and neglect the Gamecube.

lol...you would fail high school business with a SWOT analysis like that, let alone anything more serious.

"Most varied audience"
I can assure you that is definately not a strength. The more varied your audience is, the more competition you have luring away your customers, yet in the threats you only mention MS and Sony who cater mainly to core gamers. What about mobiles and tablets? they are attracting millions of casual gamers.

Brand is also not a strength because a lot of consumers fail to understand wii U and wii are not the same thing. The brand is not nintendo, its the wii U and DS, for sony its playstation and for MS its xbox, those are the brands they are marketing.

3rd party support is not a weakness. The third parties are not out to kill nintendo, they are there to work with nintendo if they can so they are an opportunity, its upto nintendo to go to them to get a list of hardware specs like cerny did for the ps4 and the dualshock, for their next console. If they dont, its a missed opportunity, not a weakness.

Id like to see my first nintendo home consoles when it launches at the same time as a playstation and is approximately equal in power and price.

I still think Nintendo should go with their strength. Mobile.

Create a powerful mobile platform, that is both a gaming system and a mobile phone, and enable it to work with a base station that offers additional features like motion controls, HDD-based storage, and optical media access/storage.

That way gamers can take their games mobile, but still have home game experiences. It wouldn't be as powerful as the Xbox One or the PS4, but it would be a unique experience that takes advantage of Nintendo's hardware strength and takes it took a new level.

Kind of a wierd thread title. If you need a Nintendo system in your living room, then simply go buy the Wii U.