The underwhelming sales for the 3DS only reinforce for me that there will be no future market for handheld consoles. Pretty soon, everyone and his mother (literally, my 60+ mother who can barely use the internet got a smartphone because it was the same price "free" as a regular phone) will have a smartphone with 1Ghz+ processors and amazing graphics capabilities. Who wants to carry around 2 devices when 1 will suffice for almost everything?

Consoles will continue to have a place in the gaming industry, but everyone who wants a Wii already has one and the technology is outdated and/or surpassed (e.g. maximun 480p resolution in a time when everyone has an HDTV, other systems have motion sensors) that there isn't much revenue left to squeeze from it. The Wii U could be a spectacular success of the same proportions as the original, but those types of successes are pretty rare (and I'm not hearing of any revolutionary changes such as the motion-sensor controls of the original Wii).

Remember that before the Wii came out and had its greater-than-expected success, Nintendo had basically become a distant third place behind Sony and Microsoft. I think its at another inflection point in its history and needs the Wii U to be another smash critical success or its in huge trouble.