I personally don't view as getting to market first as automatically winning. 5850-5870/7970 didn't win by being first. Also, I view Titan and 780 as failures to be honest rather than winners considering what happened with R9 290. Think about how a $650 780 3GB and $1000 Titan look like today against an after-market 290/290X/970?
I agree with a lot of what you say but not on the 780. Yeah, the Titan was a massive flop - and let's not even talk about Titan Z - but the 780 did well. It overclocked better than the 290 and could reach slightly higher performance deltas as a result. In the past, that would have been a hindrance as overclocking was difficult but today you do it with a click of a button, so it's much more accessible.
Titan is only for those who need DP or don't care about price and just want bragging rights. Considering you can buy 3x 970s/290Xs, 2x 980s, 4x 290s for the price of a single Titan at launch, I don't think in practical terms the Titan was a great gaming product. Even though it was expensive, the 8800GTX lasted for years and maintained premium status for a while.
Well, the 970/980 didn't exist when Titan was launched and price cannot be dissassociated from timing.
But you're right that the Titan has aged incredibly badly, given its price.
Right now at the beginning of a new generation prices will be at the highest levels. I honestly don't see why NV couldn't price 780/780Ti successors at $799 and $999 when their 980 is selling well at $550-600. I don't necessarily think NV even needs DP to price GM200 at $999 without 390X anywhere close in sight. For gamers who always want the best, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to pay $1000 from $700 of 780Ti. It's like the high end IEM/headphone market in the last 3-4 years -- prices will keep going up as long as the market is willing to support them.
Nvidia tried that with the Titan Z. It didn't happen. A lot will rest on when AMD releases their cards. If 2015 will be a re-run of 2013, then we'll see overpricing.
All the leaks have suggested new AMD cards in Q1. I think Q2 is more likely, but it stands to reason that their last (major) release is now almost 1.5 years ago. I doubt they'll go for a full two years. And Nvidia is aware of this, too.
Without strong competition from AMD, GM200 would still sell well at even $1000. Without GTX990, I actually project the initial pricing of GM200 above $699. I just wish NV gave the flagship with so many functional units full viltage control/unlock.
The Maxwell lineup has been somewhat disappointing. A lot of technical features have been shifted to Pascal. Look at the GPU roadmaps from 2013 and then compare them to 2014. And no new node shrinks as of now either and looks more and more unlikely for NV for 2015.
It has still been able to sell well because it is competing with technology from 2013.
The R300 series will most likely come with HBM, and that's a huge deal. 14 is coming in the autumn but they need a response now. We could see a two-part release in a single year, but that'd be crazy, yet wonderful.