Nintendo reminds me a lot of Sony. A Japanese company used to winning by always doing things its own way. Wii was an incredible success, but it all seemed so random, the product of a cool novelty coinciding with an economic boom. Nintendo has coasted for a long time on the considerable goodwill/might of their brand and properties. The marketplace never really cared about a lack of genuine innovation or progress, so long as there was a new Mario or Zelda around the corner - consider that even now they are releasing a console whose tech will only be on par with consoles released 6 years before it. In a way it's refreshing because Nintendo is a game company that just cares about games.
But I really think Nintendo is in real trouble now. There are ridiculously cheap (and very good) mobile games for the smartphones everyone already has, while consoles now live and breathe with rich internet-based ecosystems (which Nintendo couldn't have cared less about with Wii). I'm very curious to see how Wii U will sell considering 9% unemployment and the Wii paperweights currently sitting in living rooms across America.