WTF? What's with all this Wii HD Speculation?

It is a little late, but I just noticed this article while I was peering through the archives of Gadget Lab for the heck of it, and I found the article that the link leads to. This is speculation that a new "Wii" could hit store shelves by 2011. There are two sides to this debate:

First, take a look at the years in which previous Nintendo home consoles were released. NES was released in 1986, SNES in 1991, N64 in 1996, Gamecube in 2001, and Wii in 2006. This pattern suggests that a new Nintendo home console is likely to release in 2011.

Second, the worldwide sales for each home console has fallen with exception of Wii. NES sold about 62 million consoles, SNES sold about 49 million consoles, N64 sold about 33 million consoles, and Gamecube sold about 22 million consoles. Wii is currently at 35 million consoles which breaks the pattern, it is projected that Wii will also sell more than SNES by mid-2009. Since the sales of Wii have broken the downward trend, does it change the trend when it comes to the release of the successor console? I am on this side of the debate. Also, why would Nintendo want to break up the party among casual gamers when they are already swimming in money. There has not even been a price drop, yet. Let's wait for a price drop, then we can speculate.