Try this one for size: the only reason I just bought my (yes, black) 360 Elite was because I was waiting for two things:

1. For Microsoft to figure out how to fix the red-ring of death issue before I spent the cash;
2. For Halo 3 to come out.

I bought mine this weekend.

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lot 0729 FTW!

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I bought mine because it was black and had the Bigger hard drive....

And I'm pretty satisifed with it so far. The only problem I had with mine is that it had a "disc unreadable" error a couple of weeks ago and I sent it to TX back then.

I got it back yesterday afternoon...JUST in time for Halo 3 so I'm VERY happy with MS and its timing. At least its timing when it came to me.

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Personally I hate the black and am yet to have a single RROD related problem with my launch console, but that bulkier HDD does make a big difference. At the moment, like most owners, i have to manage my demo and media downloads too readily and it becomes annoying. I suppose Ill have to upgrade my HDD when Europe gets a full video marketplace launch. DOH!!

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Well I bought my Elite because it was black and a bigger HDD.

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I'm still waiting for the Falcon chipset before I switch over to the Elite. Also I want a better solution for transferring my game data to the new console that doesn't involve me having to sign in to play my XBLA purchases (my wife likes to play too).

In addition, I'm still somewhat sore because I would have gladly paid the $50 price difference to get the elite over the premium.

Finally, I don't necessarily need the Elite because I don't have a 1080p screen. When I do get one, I'll probably buy an Elite to go with it.

Basically, the consumers who already have the console probably don't need an elite. The only major advantage would be the additional HD space, and you can get that by purchasing the 120 GB HD. Given the option, a consumer who doesn't have a 360 will probably opt for the Elite.

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That's so stupid. I can't believe even the Microsoft "senior regional director" doesn't really get whats going on here. I'm a fresh Economics major graduate and I could probably crunch sales numbers and why they are they way they are with my pinky better than he can.

Well, Mr. Thompson, allow me to explain. There is a very obvious reason why the Elite is doing better amongst new customers and not old. Price. Simple as that. Thing is, gaming systems now-a-days are not like they used to be, they aren't cheap, they're pretty much considered investments, especially when you're considering you're core market, which is young, teen to college student aged persons. So, your old 'customers' those who bought white 360s, have pretty much invested that money, and are as we speak making a return on their investment thru good gaming. Spending another 400 buckaroos for a bigger HDD, and 'black' is just not feasible.

Now, new customers, they are also making an investment, so for them, its more beneficial to plunk down the initial $400+ dollars for the elite, which comes with a bigger HDD, and 'black' and all the sleekiness that an Elite has to offer, since it is after all their first purchase.

I doubt I needed to say all that to explain why, but I figured I'd put my thoughts in rich dummy terms. Now, if you had offered those old 360 customers a model on which to trade their old 360's for Elites for x amount of moeny, instead of leaving it to resellers [cough, gamestop, cough] who end up ripping off people when trading in hardware, then you might find that old customers will in fact opt for Elite 360s I'd say 70% of the time, depending on the price.

There, how's that for an explanation! I've got more where that came from if you've got a job for me, preferably yours!

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Personally I can't see spending so much money on a new system when my old 360 works fine. If I want more memory I'll go buy more, and for HD? Cables man. Cables. Works fine on my new 42 inch (I'm ashamed, I got the new tv just for Halo 3) so I'm happy. If it's black it just means it wont match my equipment besides my one controller. Most people waited for the price to go down and for all the errors to be fixed. That's why your seeing the newb's getting them.

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Well, jee, I feel like an idoit after reading how Mohamed. Bang on brother!

I totally agree. If we could trade ours in, I'd jump on it. But then begs the question, would you get a new hard drive? Trade yours in and lose your data or am I missing the link between systems

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Just because it's Elite doesn't mean its not going to have the same problems of the other units. My Elite broke in the first month of release. Then I was unable to get another, because they were still sold out for launch. So I had to downgrade back to the original model.

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hdmi

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And cos people just want to be 1337

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Thought the orginal users would buy it? FUK YOU you (microsoft) thought that we would be replacing the systems you knew to be faulty! ASSHOLE.

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All you really needed to say was that they already bought one lol.

Typically we do see people rebuying systems for upgrades or additions or changes, however. I do know a significant amount of people who have done such a thing, although when that new model is almost $500 it obviously gets diminished. I really don't think he's unaware of that, I just got the impression he felt the numbers would be a bit different than they are.

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People probably figure the most expensive one won't spend half its life in shipping back and forth to Microsoft.

They're wrong. Suckers.

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"HDMI"
second that.
My main reason: I'm fucking rich and bored.

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A lot of the people who bought 360s previously may want to upgrade to the Elite but are waiting until the RRoD issues are for sure a thing of the past, and that new issues don't pop up, maybe some are simply waiting on the 65Nm consoles to be released.

I think still others are hoping that the 120Gb HDD becomes standard so they can get a better price, in reality it probably costs Microsoft less then $5 more to make an Elite instead of a Premium (I'm not even sure where they are still getting 20Gb drives).

On that note, does anyone know why when the 360 price drop was announced that the core and premium got a $50 price drop but the Elite got only a $29 price drop? I thought it was supposed to be $50 across the board.

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Umm.. I'm pretty sure it's not because of all the old owners who sold off their old systems then bought Elites. /sarcasm off

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I bought my Xbox 360 in April or May. I would have waited for the Elite, but the only reason I bought the system was to tide me over till I could get a Wii.

I have a Wii now and never play it.

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I actually just bought my first 360 last week (and no, it's not for Halo). What I really cared about was the HDMI functionality. I didn't care about drive space. I was going to just get one of the new systems with the 20 gig drive and HDMI port.

The sales guy at Best Buy was tempting me to go to Elite because it included the cable. The fact that it was black was the final nail in the coffin. I forked over the extra $100 and took home the Elite.

Since then, I've downloaded a shitload of demos and other free content off of the XBLM, and I have already used 40gigs on that alone. So in looking back, it turns out that I actually needed the extra storage space anyway, so it was good that I went Elite.

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