The reaction towards the Wii U has been similar to that of the Wii, Satoru Iwata has explained to shareholders.
"For the Wii, before its launch and right after its announcement, the feedback was similar to that of the Wii U," he has said. "In other words, when something unique comes up, it's difficult for people to understand it at the beginning. A lot of misunderstandings and pessimistic observations, like, 'Will a product like this really spread in the market?' prevail and then after some time, after being able to experience it, the atmosphere changes.
"In fact, when the Wii was showcased at E3 in 2006, there were a lot of news stories which reported the strong receptions of the Wii by the visitors to the show; however, the questions I was asked then and there were all tough questions. Almost every one of the reporters asked, 'How in the world are you going to compete with Sony or Microsoft with a product like this?' Everyone has forgotten what the real situation was."
I think there's a certain degree of this, he's right, but it also ignores the fact that the people complaining about the Wii U aren't complaining because there's going to be a second screen or even that the specs aren't going to be fantastic, but that there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of software warranting purchase, or that Nintendo still doesn't seem want to listen in terms of mandatory achievements. Pretending that "people just don't get it" is ignoring deeper problems.