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Firstly, there is no way in hell Nintendo is dumping pointer controls. It's not happening. That was what the Wiimote did better than anything else it was designed to do. Secondly, the Wii HD will be backwards compatible.
In this latest mock-up, I added physical buttons for Start, Select, and the Home button. I'd imagine they would want to keep such things standard across the board and out of the hands of developer customization. Also, in order to keep development costs down, I'd assume they may still keep the nunchuck tethered simply because charging two different control inputs for a single gameplay experience is a bit ridiculous. Hell, they may even give Wii owners a break by allowing current nunchucks to be compatible.
This is based on good faith that touch controls have improved to the point to where Nintendo can implement it in a solid way. People have mentioned how much it sucks to play touch games on your smartphones and such, but I'll dare say that Kirby Canvas Curse alone makes me think otherwise, especially in developing technology in the hands of actual gamemakers.
A six inch touch screen on a controller is honestly a bit ridiculous, especially if its coupled with various buttons and d-pads and analog sticks. That just sounds like a monstrosity of a controller and I really doubt Nintendo would take a step backwards and make the control interface even more alienating. Especially when Miyamoto has contemplated the idea of a one button controller -- that just doesn't make sense.
I'm leaning towards the belief that many things have gotten lost in translation being based on early development kits. Nintendo is no stranger to keeping things secret even from developers with dev kits.
I have my doubts about this concept however. It's not a multitouch screen. So even if a second circular touch pad that can mimick both digital and 3D control is featured, when the controller is turned on its side for NES gameplay, for Super Mario Bros. you wouldn't be able to hold A to run and jump, that is unless 3D control is used for 2D games, or there are triggers on the back as a replacement.
Would Nintendo design a controller with no buttons? Yes and No. The GameCube had the beginnings of simplified control interface with the focus on just the B and A buttons, and the Wii took that further by having them essentially be only two buttons used when in pointer positioning.
If the motion recognition has been improved over both Wii Motion Plus and PlayStation Move, and if Nintendo's experience with touch screen interfaces has evolved through the efforts of DS game design, then I could see this being the evolution of the Wiimote. Furthermore, tactile feedback, in addition to force feedback to provide gameplay design cues 'n such, along with both motion and touch tech is the forward movement towards more immersive (physically) gameplay experiences. That is the whole idea as to why the Wii was such a success to begin with.
With that said, a classic controller will be available day one regardless.