The Wii is winning if the only metric is pure console sales. I know personally that even though I own one. I've played a single game on it in the last 2 years and the last 6 months it's been delegated to a Netflix machine in the bedroom. I wouldn't exactly label that "dominance" of the current generation.
Plus, all you have to do is go back a single console generation and you have the Gamecube which was absolutely dominated in pretty much any category you can think of by the Playstation 2. Even the Xbox, a console by a company no one though should develop a console, managed to beat the Gamecube in sales.
Go back one generation further and again the Playstation dominated the Nintendo 64.
I would argue that Nintendo hasn't been in a dominant position in a very long time. The sales of the Wii were a big win for Nintendo, but they aren't really delivering on the games front. The Wii was sold at a time when the casual market was ready to explode. But now it's just turned into that thing no one uses. Hell, I bought a $99 Wii for my girlfriend's parents mainly so they would be able to watch Netflix. Sure, it was another Wii sale, but that's not exactly what we usually talk about when we talk about dominance in the gaming industry.
It takes a lot of dancing to try to claim otherwise, but a lot of people seem ready to do that dance. I'm not sure why. I don't like Apple particularly well personally, but I don't try to run around proving they aren't an extremely successful company.
Oh, and if we're going to talk console dominance, one should probably not forget that Nintendo has simply owned the portable gaming world for 12 years now, since the Gameboy came out. The only thing that has ever successfully competed with the Gameboy or DS lines are the next Nintendo model.
Agreed on the portable gaming world, but I don't think it's difficult to see how Nintendo's position in the console gaming market is not nearly as strong as strong as it was during its NES/SNES days.
Nintendo is a bit different from the other brands on hardware sales though. If you bought a PS3 or 360 at launch and didn't buy any games, you were actually hurting Microsoft and Sony because they lost money on each console sold. Nintendo sells the Wii at a profit. Just buying a console and never using it gives them money. The same can't be said for the others.
Plus, all you have to do is go back a single console generation and you have the Gamecube which was absolutely dominated in pretty much any category you can think of by the Playstation 2. Even the Xbox, a console by a company no one though should develop a console, managed to beat the Gamecube in sales.
Go back one generation further and again the Playstation dominated the Nintendo 64.
I would argue that Nintendo hasn't been in a dominant position in a very long time. The sales of the Wii were a big win for Nintendo, but they aren't really delivering on the games front. The Wii was sold at a time when the casual market was ready to explode. But now it's just turned into that thing no one uses. Hell, I bought a $99 Wii for my girlfriend's parents mainly so they would be able to watch Netflix. Sure, it was another Wii sale, but that's not exactly what we usually talk about when we talk about dominance in the gaming industry.