so did kinect sports so i guess you don't have a point as well, fads can sell for years btw, butIt wasn't a sustainable market because the defining characteristic of the Wii was the novelty of waggle control, and its use in Wii Sports, which started a brilliant positive feedback loop that lead to the Wii becoming a must-have item, as well as natural extensions of the core concept that played well with the rapidly growing install base, such as Wii Fit. But like with most fads, the sheer exuberance of the sales explosion in the early years was met equally with the most rapid sales drop-off ever experienced by a successful console. The Wii was all but dead by the end of its fifth year.

At that point Nintendo likely realized that they needed a different novelty to recapture that audience, and the Wii U gamepad has been a complete failure in that attempt. If they had been successful and come up with something as novel as the Wii's waggle, then they may have retained their audience, but it wouldn't be evidence that the Wii wasn't a fad -- merely that they managed to replace one fad with another. 

If you look at incredibly successful consumer tech products in the past decade that built sustainable audiences without needing to reinvent the wheel in each iteration, the iPhone is a perfect example. When it was unveiled, many (including RIM executives) believed that the idea of a touchscreen smartphone would never catch on. The iPhone sold well; each of its successors has sold better than its predecessor, and a huge and sustainable market was born. 

Nintendo retained the ability to use Wiimotes and play Wii games with Wii U, updated the internal hardware, and added a new control option. All in all, it's a nice improvement on the Wii, but it isn't selling because their 100M strong Wii audience wasn't sustainable. They're buying smartphones and tablets, and Nintendo is going to have to pull off a miracle hit to ever get them back.

Umm ... *looks at sig* Ok then. 

Do you think sales equate to quality ? Sales definitely determine the relevance of a franchise soo ... 

its a fact that fads could sell for years do your research. i think the best option for nintendo is becoming a third party, since no third party are willing to supprt them anymore.

You obviously didn't do YOUR RESEARCH

http://www.entrepreneurialconnection.com/skills/module49/three.asp

The difference between a fad and a trend is the period of time. Would you consider the CD storage a fad ? Obviously not because it became obsolete by DVDs. 

Would you consider the classic "pet rock" example as a fad ? Absolutely because the demand for it didn't last more than 3 MONTHS. 

What makes the WII similar to the "pet rock" in this case ? It's not similar AT ALL. 

its funny that article mentions the Hula hoop as a fad, yet it sold 24 million in it's first 4 months and 100 million in 2 years, thank you. yet your main point was that fads can't sell for years.

Fads can't sell past 3 YEARS. Nive try though. 

and who said the hula hoop stopped selling, i could find many more examples that match the 3 years, but why waste my time, you make your own rules to what a fad is lol. infact the hula hoop was an iconic image if the 1950s, so it sold way longer then 3 years.

And just how MANY MORE units did they sell after those 2 years ? I don't have a rule for fads. IT'S GENREALLY AGREED UPON THAT IT USUALLY LASTS 3 YEARS. NICE TRY THOUGH.