Wii Sells 30M in US, Leaves Geeks in Dust

At just under 4 years old, the Wii has already sold 30 million units in the US—and 71 million globally. Nintendo clearly has done much more than just create the fastest-selling video-game console of all time—it's made the first one to be embraced by the mainstream, writes Charlie Sorrel of Wired. And this points to a larger cultural shift: geeks (he proudly counts himself among them) are no longer the target audience of tech companies.

Just as the iPad is a small computer made to appeal to those who don't know the ins and outs of computers, the Wii is a console for non-gamers. The smartest firms, like Apple and Nintendo, have realized that their previous core audience, the geek/nerd/techie, is just the first tier of their business model; they get the gadgets first and show them to their non-geek family and friends—the real gadget market in this new world.
(More Nintendo stories.)