The word on the street (read:rumor) is the Microsoft is going to release an announcement on their 2009 hardware revision, Xbox 360 Slim. This announcement will explain, supposedly, what the slim will look like and when we can expect it.
Does any of this make sense? Do we have any Marketing folks in the audience?
Who the hell would announce a new hardware refresh during the holiday season? Microsoft has worked hard to cut prices and build hype about their console. They’ve spent a large amount of money on marketing and gaining continual momentum against the PlayStation 3 product (they’ve got no prayer against the Wii at this point). Would it be wise to tell consumers that the product they’re buying is going to be old and crusty within a few months of owning it?
We think this rumor might be a bit stretched; although Microsoft came out months ago denying the claims of a slimline system, we’re still undecided on the truth. What we do believe is that Microsoft would wait until momentum started to spin down before refreshing their product line. This would be similar to how Nintendo handles their DS redesigns, waiting until their is a slow in momentum before pushing their next revision.
No details have been mentioned on this fabled Slim yet, presumably it would be the standard Xbox 360 with a smaller form factor and potentially a bit quieter and cooler (looking and heat-wise).
Perhaps we’ll see a slim 360, but we probably won’t see the announcement this holiday.
