One of the worst rumors around (posted about this in January) has finally been confirmed, the Xbox 360 Elite will be in stores April 29th. The Elite is a Xbox360 with a black finish, HDMI and a 120gig hard drive selling for $479. Microsoft has addressed three of it's biggest complaints since the original 360 was launched: 1) not in black like the original Xbox, 2) it didn't have an HDMI port for a true digital output and 3) the hard drive was too small.

Some of the most recent rumors have not been confirmed or seem to be false. The Elite does not appear to be a limited edition 360 as some people believed. There is also no news about incorporating the HDMI into the Pro and Core models. The Elite also does not include the 65nm processor which seems to be taking longer than expected. If this was a limited edition I think that would have sat better for existing 360 owners. It would put more of an emphasis on needing to pick one up since it was LE. The fact that it seems the Pro and Core will not be getting HDMI is probably linked to the fact the 65nm processor is not ready. This new processor will run cooler and provide a cost reduction for the 360. I expect this to be ready for a late summer or early fall and be out before Halo 3 ships.

The introduction of a new higher price model does not make a lot of sense to me. This model will only appeal to the hard core users that most likely already bought the system. I really doubt that people that hadn't bought a 360 before where holding out for a more expensive one even if it has HDMI and a larger hard drive. The hard drive will be sold separate for $179 with a cable that will allow you to transfer your data off your old hard drive. So the only real appeal for an existing owner is that it's black and has HDMI. From what I've heard HDMI will only make a difference for those users with a 1080p TV.

I think what Microsoft is trying to do is copy Apple's iPod model. There is always a $350, $250 and $199 model for the iPod. Every couple years a new version of the iPod is released with some new features and people buy a new iPod when their batteries die or they breaks. I think MS will cut the price of the 360 this fall so that there is a $379, $299 and $199 model and going forward keep upgrading the top of the line model then gradually introducing these upgrades to the lower version.

Microsoft has seen how the PS1 lasted 10 years and the PS2 is doing strong in it's seventh year. Why not just make a more souped up version of the processor or video card in an effort to improve the console over time? Why build a new Xbox every four or five years when you can just gradually improve the hardware over time? The CPU is a 3 core unit so over time Microsoft could add more processors and allow Microsoft's underlying framework to manage the distribution of work. If this is what they are doing there may not ever be a true next xbox, only smaller revisions that keep the console up to date technology wise.