hmm i wish you were right about it being in summer but thats not certain at all. the final version will be shown in the summer at E3. but i just saw an article reporting on a nintendo meeting and one of the results was that the wii u is likely to be released in japan in september and EU and NA in november a summer release would of been awesome and its still possible but less likely

WHAT?!?! If Nintendo doesn't release the Operation Rainfall Trio next year, it's going to be a REALLY boring year.

I'm glad that the Wii U is coming out in the summer for two reasons:

-I just spent $70 on Skyward Sword, which could have been spent on a Wii U. I'll have more time to save up
-This will give me the ENTIRE SUMMER to play with my Wii U without thinking about school one bit

There are both SD and USB ports for a reason. I'd imagine that the Wii U would have a small amount of memory (~8 GB) that, if wanted by the consumer, could be expanded via SD or USB 2.0. In my opinion, the USB 3.0 adoption rate is too low for Nintendo to spend the extra money on including it.

On a semi-related topic, why is Nintendo giving us FOUR USB ports when the only confirmed accessory that uses it is the New Controller? If they really are going to allow only one NC at a time, then why include four ports? Controlled, anyone?

My guess is 299$ - 399$. Nintendo knows that it can't be too high (599 US Dollars anyone?), but it also can't be too low because it will mean less power = no solid next gen console.

Anyway, if they stay at that price, the PS4 and Xbox 720 will have to be more expensive to beat that hardware, and it will be too expensive and they will fail.
Fanboys who says that it will be beaten by PS4 and Xbox 720 easily are wrong, it will be too expensive, so as long Nintendo makes it somewhere between 300-400 they will be just fine.

Anything over $300 would be ridiculous. Here's why:

SNES was originally $199, and the Genesis (its biggest rival) cost the same price. The SNES was more powerful than the Genesis.
N64 was $199, and the Playstation was $299 at launch. The N64 was more powerful than the Playstation.
Gamecube was $199, and the PS2 was $299 at launch. The Gamecube was more powerful than the PS2.

Now, if the rumors are true that the Wii U is anywhere from 50%-500% more powerful than a PS3, that doesn't necessarily mean that it will be the most expensive console. Nintendo has never had the most expensive console on the market. Sony learned from the PS3 that consumers won't pay $500 for technology that won't mature for another 3 years. Microsoft knows that the lowest they'll go on a console launch is $299. This means that Nintendo will NOT have a $300 launch price, because they strive for the lowest price (and when they don't-3DS, anyone?-they suffer badly). This leaves my final guesstimate at anywhere from $250-$280.

Nintendo is now starting to realize that they can't afford to make huge profits anymore. If the 3DS would have still cost $249 today, then the Big N would probably be losing retailers, developers, and most importantly, customers. In my opinion, Nintendo was being extremely arrogant by pricing their handheld at $250 ($50 more than its biggest competitor, the iPod Touch, mind you). One would hope that Nintendo would learn from its mistakes and charge the Wii U at a reasonable price. $249-$279.