I am sure that there probably was some confusion in the NES -> SNES days. However, the Playstation number scheme is very straitforward, and the XBox 360 was advertised to death prior to release. I have seen little to none in terms of advertising for the Wii U. If it weren't for me browsing gaming websites, I probably wouldn't know the difference.
The Wii U is slightly ahead of the PS3 and 360 in terms of overall graphical power. Whenever the next PS and Xbox release it will be far behind just like the Wii was. However, having HD gaming this time will help it remain relevant.