Business School says otherwise.
Cash flow and balance of revenue after deduction of costs and expenses is what it is all about.

It is the sole factor. It indicates whether or not millions of gamers are being entertained at home.

^Of course the GCN hasn't failed to be profitable, but it failed to strike a chord with the general public, and I see that as a bad thing.

The only way it can be not considered a failure is if the GCN aimed to be the niche console right at the start. Then 22 mill. consoles would have been a runaway success.

I'll repeat.
Cash flow and balance of revenue after deduction of costs and expenses is what it is all about. Niche console or not. Market Share is somewhat important, but not critical. However, market share can be instrumental
in business sectors where a venture/company needs to control sales and the product install base through
distribution relying on material infrastructure. Consumer Electronics has the luxury and flexibility of hardware companies providing solutions for software companies.

Think of it this way.
During the 6th Generation, the GameCube's purpose was to support Nintendo's GameBoy and Pokemon franchise. The proprietary and the handheld system worked 'in tandem', drawing synergy effects from the same pool of resources. Thus maintaining the brand and Nintendo's hold on 'their segment'.

Iwata:

I do not intend to declare how many Wii we will be selling today, but Wii will be a failure if it cannot sell far more than GameCube did. In fact, we shouldn't continue this business if our only target is to outsell GameCube. Naturally, we are making efforts so that Wii will show a far greater result than GameCube.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/kessan/060607qa_e/index.html

 Aliens vs Predator

..does not mean what you think it means. :D
The context is as follows. Each and every generation is a different scenario with new conditions
and new possibilities in terms of potentials sales.
That is what Iwata's meant. That is the context at hand.

Wii would indeed be a failure if it could not sell far more than GameCube did.

I would be hard pressed to call 20 plus million consoles sold "a failure".  Perhaps not as commercially successful as others, but far from a failure.

Have seen alot of people refer to it as the "purple lunchbox".  I have a platinum cube and controllers/wavebirds....but if purple was the only color available at launch, I can see that hurting sales initially from an aesthetic standpoint.  Which, makes me wonder...if platinum was the launch color, would people have taken the unit more seriously and perhaps numbers have been radically different?

We will never know  =p

- kw

Gamecube sales didn't meet Nintendo expectation.

GamingChartz, will you at least concede the point that it's not just about profitability, but it's about how successful the console should aim to be, as illustrated by Iwata's comments? If Wii sold only as well as gamecube, it probably still would have been profitable, and Nintendo would be afloat today just as at the end of the last generation.

very poor 3rd party support and apart from the 1st party games and a few 3rd party ones the selection was crap.