A) I don't want to spend $50+ on an 8+ GB SD card that I'm not even sure the Wii can even read,

B) Hard drives are cheaper, and they are easier to deal with. OH NO you gotta lug it around! Please, you would just have to plug it into the USB port. It's just as hard as an SD card.

Yea usb HDD is the best way to go imo faster too read off of . Sure it might look weird sticking out but who cares you can still carry it in your pockets .

^you can alwasys just leave it behind the wii and noone will be the wiser

I think it may still be merited in that a HDD would usually have the ability to launch items stored on it vs having to move stuff back onto the Wii, as is the case now with SD cards.

Now, if Nintendo simply added HDD support, but you still had to move stuff, then forget it. I'll just buy a large SD card and take up a lot less space/energy costs.

 Even if  you did have to transfer the files I think it would be alot faster to transfer them compared to , an sd. 

 Exactly. And I think this is one area where Nintendo really dropped the ball. They need a Hard Drive and they need it sooner than later.

I think the Wii will go the same way as the ipod in their goal to make the Wii a household brand name - we will see various Wii models over the next few years all playing same library of games but with different functionality ie Wii High Def, Wii HDD (probably Wii Retro as it can store VC / Wiiware games) and the Wii will probably be the Wii Classic.

Wii will be as big as Ipod in a few years time and marketable in it's own right - this is merely the base model, this is why they wont sort out the storage problems I believe.

 That's stupid.  An iPod plays an mp3 or other music or video file, there's nothing special about any particular file.

Wii is a videogame system, and if you release a game that utilizes a hard drive, you need to be able to play the game on any Wii system, you can't release a Wii with better graphics and still have a Wii with not as good graphics and be able to play the same games.

I think Nintendo is dropping the ball with "ease of use" if they expect people to re-download on a regular basis, or backup to SD on a regular basis. I don't think their target customers will bother. The next question is whether the average user will ever go back to the old downloads.

I don't know any better, but it sounds like security is the fear with letting apps run off of SD. I am thinking allowing a security chip in a special SD card could slove that.

But probably better, just use "good enough" security and open the SD and USB ports, as whatever they do for will be cracked anyway.

If they allowed the use of any USB/SD device (and of course, cover their butts with a small number of recommended brands) they could make it a plus. If they make people buy special Nintendo USB devices, it will appear that the Wii is not complete without this addition.

What happens here is ground for possibly Nintendo's first big mistake this generation.

The games wont utilize the hard drive - it will just have larger storage capacity for VC, Wiiware games and DLC when it finally comes, the Wii HDD will just upscale it to a higher res - I may be wrong but doesn't the ps3 do something like this with ps2 games?

On topic - Nintendo dont have to do anything yet, didn't they once say that they had huge plans for the Wii but they didn't want to drive away the new market with confusing them by too much going on, they dont have to do anything yet whilst it's selling so well but once demand settles down then we'll see storage solutions, new colours etc.

 Right now it's a case of if it's not broke dont fix it.