Excuse me, but most Wii U owners that I know personally (including myself) are in there young to mid 20's. I know very few children that have Wii U's. Most kids I know that play video games are still playing Minecraft on their xbox 360's and haven't even awknowledged the new generation yet.

Everyone. They need casual games like Wii Sports (obviously new ideas though. Wii Sports is dried up), the easy middle for the Nintendo fans (just releasing a Zelda or Metroid will do), and then they need 3rd party games that are at least somewhat near the power and capability of PS5 and NeXbox. If this works they will succeed. But also a competitive price and aggressive marketing

3DS vs Wii U sales per region (from platform totals page)

America-15.77 million vs 4.06 million

Europe-13.25 million vs 2.07 million

Japan-17.88 million vs 2.13 million

Others-3.08 million vs 0.55 million

So even if Japan isn't a very console friendly territory anymore, there is still a sizeable market in the west that Nintendo can try winning over.

Retired persons. They are the fastest growing group, have much time to play games and often have enough money (they don't have to beg their parents to buy them some games). ;)

That's one of the weird ironies about this gen.

Sony made the most straightforward core-centric console of the three, and ended up having the biggest sales. The WiiU was designed to bridge the gap between casual and core players, and ended up alienating both camps, leaving only the Nintendo faithful to stick with it. Hell, I remember how in the early months there were several Nintendo fans sitting on their money because they were waiting for Smash, or Mario Kart, or whatever, and just stuck with their 3DS for a while.

Every angle they attack this issue from comes with severe risks.

The casual market is no longer the open season that it was back in '06. If they try to reel in the Wii dollar again, they have to share the lake with every phone/tablet maker on Earth. Meanwhile, a combination of third party abandonment and lingering gamer resentment over the Wii (and WiiU to an extent) means they'd have a mountain to climb to convince core gamers outside of the Nintendo faithful to climb back aboard. And this is all happening while their handhelds are being squeezed by a fast shrinking market; as it stands, the 3DS will fall short of PSP numbers despite being pretty much uncontested, and their next on-the-go device will face even tougher conditions.

I honestly don't know how Nintendo should deal with this. Right now, they have the cheapest console, with no paid online, the best regarded slate of exclusives, and a unique control scheme that could offer real, tangible benefits to the core experience that the Wiimote could not. Yet despite all the constant bitching about AAA games being broken at launch or disappointing, or online services not working, people are still happy to ignore the WiiU for more expensive boxes. And considering how the Gamecube had both solid specs and better third party support than the WiiU, there's no guarantee competing on that front would work for Nintendo anyway.

I'll be watching very closely to see what path Nintendo takes, because there are potential pitfalls no matter which direction they go.

Those saying Nintendo "targeted" x audience with the Wii U and people didn't want it need to brush up on the history of this gen. The Wii U's problem was that, as far as any kind of marketing or advertising, it actively targeted *no one*. People can't buy what they don't know even exists.

This is actually true.  Someone just has to figure out how to tap into it.  It's a hard market to crack but possibly extremely lucrative.

I think it's possible.  My mom can't even use a DVD player but I got her a Kindle reader a few years ago and she absolutely loves it.  Her eyes have gotten bad enough that normal-print books caused a lot of eye-strain but one of the benefits of digital is that it allows you to increase font-size.  A simple feature like that can make a real difference.  It will just require a perspective change in order to bring forward ideas that would attract older folks, not to mention an advertising campaign on Fox News and TV Land.

Kids and casuals I guess.

I said the WiiU is aimed at kids AND Nintendo fans. You would probably fall into the latter category. 

Me =D