They won't win unless they move forward the concept of what a video game system is and does. Copying what others do has never been what they aimed for and I doubt they'll do so this time either. They said themselves the NX would be something that's never been attempted before.
I expect it to be an expandable virtual platform with evolvable specs that will change over time. The system will only just run a virtual machine (that's emulation so to speak of a system, the NX, that doesn't exist physically so to speak) and the same virtual machine, the NX, will not change drasically over time as new hardware gets released. For example that means that the catalogue of one given hardware will always remain playable no matter what, going forward, and virtual console titles made available on NX will always remain playable on new hardware at no cast whatsoever since no re-redevelopment of emulators of older hardware would be required.
Think of the Java Runtime Environment for example. Any machine capable of running the JRE can run any Java app. Why wouldn't Nintendo do that? Seriously, the last two console generations, they had to redevelop the same apps over and over again. VC titles for Wii? Had to redevelop emulators and heavily testing them all over again for 3DS first. Then for Wii U. What next? With unified system as described above they wouldn't need to ever do that again. More than that, whichever physical system you'd own, purchasing it on one would make it runnable on any of the others, helping putting in place the unified system already announced by Nintendo.
But all this requires more raw power to achieve the same level of graphical fidelity though, cause there's an extra layer of complexity to consider, the virtualization part. But all this isn't completely out of the realm of possibility, would fit with their recent comments, all the way back to when Iwata was still around, would solve some of their problems with developing on two separate fronts for console and handhelds, would tie in with the general consensus that the NX will neither be a traditional home console or a traditional handheld but a hybrid of both, etc etc. That's something I'd like to see them doing anyway. That would truly be groundbreaking, going forward. Imagine never having to ever lose your old library of titles as new hardware gets released? Never having to stop being able to play them? Never having to re-buy your software and, for Nintendo, never having to re-develop emulators for their older systems.
But to make it work, you need extra power. I don't think, going forward, that getting extra power to match PS4 would make any difference. The system needs to offer something that will make heads turn, but not in the way of a gimmick like the gamepad is, no matter how good it can be when used right within a game concept. The above would achieve that effect methinks. I keep pondering the directions in which Nintendo might go, based on all that they said about the NX, and I believe the Wii U combined to the tough early years of the 3DS has taught them that as long as they remain confined to their old ways of approaching distribution of their software, online integration and refusal to embrace the new mediums, they're doomed, if not in the short term due to their financial power, in the longer term at least. In the eye of the public, save for the 3DS that remains a force to be reckoned with on the market, Nintendo is non-existent. They're nowhere to be seen. They're not in advertisements on TV, not in the general media that focuses on big AAA titles on the other competing platforms. And if they're doing anything about integrating Android in some shape or form like I thought in the past already that they'd do, in order to make their mobile games playable on the new platform as well, plus possibly all of the back catalogue of titles already out for Android, then good Lord, they've won already (and that would explain Square Enix's surprising very early supportive attitude towards the platform when we know very little about it yet).