Ok, a sort-of analysis on what came from the investor's briefing, in regards to accounts / membership / mobile app
Nintendo Account
Well, after seeing how the European Nintendo site asked users to log in Club Nintendo by using their NNIDs too, I was thinking that Nintendo Network could have been absorbed by the new membership system, somehow. And this is probably how they're going to do it. It's actually even a bigger change than what I thought, since...
You can easily log in through Facebook/Twitter/Google+/email + password, alongside the NNID. I suppose that, before NX, we'll see NNID being synced with the Nintendo Account, while, starting from NX, NNID and NA will be more and more merged. A definite step forward compared to the current situation, actually bigger than my expectations. And much easier to get through to boot, which is a plus for the expanded audience.
P.S. It's a strange feeling to see, among the platforms for the new account and membership system,...theme parks. No, not mobile devices, but the theme parks. :lol
MyNintendo
Consequential to the new account, we have the first details for the brand new membership system. From the details so far, it looks like a fusion between Club Nintendo, Nintendo Network Premium with notable enhancements. Actually, let's go back to January 2014, when Iwata introduced, for the first time, the concept of consoles being more like "brothers"
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130/03.html
As we continue to redefine our platforms from a device-based system to an account-based system using NNIDs, we will also try to change the way in which dedicated video game systems as well as software are sold that people have come to take for granted.
The way in which dedicated video game systems and their software are sold has not changed significantly since the business model of dedicated video game platforms was first established 30 years ago. Dedicated video game systems are sold for two hundred or three hundred dollars, on which standalone software titles are distributed for 30 or 50 dollars. This simple model received widespread support from consumers that enabled us to create todays market. The decision to change it is the manifestation of our recognition that we cannot expect this model to work forever amid dynamic changes in peoples lifestyles.
If we succeed in the redefinition of video game platforms that I speak of today, our account-based connections with consumers will become very clear. For example, until now it has been taken for granted that software is offered to users at the same price regardless of how many titles they purchase in a year, be it one, five or even ten titles. Based on our account system, if we can offer flexible price points to consumers who meet certain conditions, we can create a situation where these consumers can enjoy our software at cheaper price points when they purchase more. Here, we do not need to limit the condition to the number of software titles they purchase. Inviting friends to start playing a particular software title is also an example of a possible condition. If we can achieve such a sales mechanism, we can expect to increase the number of players per title, and the players will play our games with more friends. This can help maintain the high usage ratio of a platform. When one platform maintains a high active use ratio, the software titles which run on it have a higher potential to be noticed by many, which leads to more people playing with more titles. When we see our overall consumers, they generally play two or three titles per year. We aim to establish a new sales mechanism that will be beneficial to both consumers and software creators by encouraging our consumers to play more titles and increasing a platforms active use ratio without largely increasing our consumers expenditures.
Nintendo aims to work on this brand-new sales mechanism in the medium term, but we would like to start experimenting with Wii U at an early stage.
Well, it seems they achieved, more or less, what they wanted. Here, you don't earn points just by buying games, but by playing them as well. You get news, discounts and gifts by signing in MyNintendo, for special occasions (like birthdays), based on play history, purchase history and your profile. This also perfectly fits with what Iwata said a few months ago.
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/150508qa/02.html
So far, we have been offering a loyalty program in which we offer corresponding points to those who have purchased our products, and we have been offering some rewards based on these points. What we are aiming to establish is not a simple extension of the existing loyalty program but a loyalty program with, say, the entertainment elements where the members feel that they have received certain rewards as a result of not only their purchases but also the history of their gameplay and how each consumer has interacted with others. Since it is impossible to define the requirements for this sort of loyalty program 100 percent in advance, we see it very advantageous that we are able to work with DeNA who will be able to flexibly deal with such requirements. We have not decided if the next meeting with you will be a Financial Results Briefing or a Corporate Management Policy Briefing, but around the end of October this year, we will probably have the next opportunity to communicate with you. We will prepare for that so we will be able to disclose more concrete information at that time.
It's good to see that earning points allow to get physical awards like in Club Nintendo, alongside digital content and (probably what's the biggest change compared to the former system) discount coupons. Again, this is coherent to how Iwata stated he wanted to change not just how consoles are sold, but how games are sold, in order to get people buying more games, thus consoles being costantly used, thus more games getting attention from customers, thus more games being bought (potentially), etc.etc. Long short story, the creation of a cyclical engagement process.
It's not what I thought it could have been (incremental discounts: the more you buy, the bigger base discount you get when buying a game from the eShop), but it's still a pretty good execution, with some unexpected twists. Mainly, the real life applications, surprising and interesting at the same time. It looks like Nintendo wants to enter in everyday's lives as much as possible.
It still needs to be said, though, that, compared to the original plans, mobile is going to play a larger role than expected back in 2014, given the partnership with DeNA and their release plans. Also, it doesn't seem that inviting friends to play multiplayer sessions makes you earn points, but there is a friendship system. I suppose this could be considered an evolution of the friend list, not relegated anymore to your Nintendo devices, but spanning across all the MyNintendo-supporting devices. And with a sort-of-chat system to boot. Really sort-of
Miitomo
Here it is, the first Nintendo app for mobile. If we take it in isolation from everything, it sounds peculiar for sure. A Mii chat room where your thoughts are shared across your friends, and you discover them more and more by that? A different way to create relationships, for who is very shy too. What makes this application more important (theorically, at least), is that it's not isolated, it's strictly correlated to MyNintendo.
You see, back when both the mobile plans and the new membership services were announced, I always thought that the two would have been released in conjunction, as a "demonstration" of how it works. It never crossed my head that the first application would have been an actual extension of MyNintendo. It takes the Friends concept and gives to it a bigger social makeup, giving to people the possibility of interacting between each other, possibly discovering more about each other. It's also (99.9% odds) the legendary Mii app Iwata mentioned several times, already delayed in the past. And, in the end, it actually makes sense that the first app to be released is something that is intimately connected to the new membership system, extending one of its functions and bringing bigger social interactions.
Overall, I'd say that both Nintendo Accounts and MyNintendo are well welcomed, expected or even better-than-expected execution of what has been stated for months, since...almost 2 years ago, while the application is something both unusual and, when the context is considered, not that out-of-nowhere, and I'm very curious to see how it'll perform (downloads/grossing) once it launches. I think this app has potential (even bigger than what most here thinks), but it's also the most difficult element to forecast, it can perfectly fail as well.