Holiday Confusion

Why does Microsoft keep doing this? They keep making up different SKUs for their XB360 and confusing the hell out of people. All last Christmas I had to explain to every person inquiring about a 360 about the difference between a Core and a Premium. Then earlier this year it was between a Core, Premium, and an Elite. The core is gone, but now there's an Arcade Xbox 360 Console. It's just basically a Core but with HDMI, some XB Arcade games and a memory card. I still don't understand why they and Sony went and made multiple versions of their systems in the first place. Now Microsoft wants to complicate things more. I've heard people say that they're trying to be competitive. That this is a new product to be competitive with Sony's new price drop today and the new 40 GB that Sony is putting out for the holidays. I think if they want to make it competitive, they should just worry about the big system. I mean how many Arcade Consoles are they going to sell this year? I can tell you it'll be less than the Premiums, Elites, and it'll be less than the Halo 3 consoles that are still just sitting around right now. Microsoft is spreading out themselves trying to appeal to everyone. Sure they'll be able to convert a few. For the cheaper system they'll look at a Wii and say "hey why don't I pay a little more and get a 360." But aren't those the same casual game players that are buying up Wii systems right now? Haven't we established that they're new to gaming and aren't the game buying fiends that Microsoft needs. And if they do convert to bigger game buyers, won't they need all the items which are left out of the "Core" system? Is Microsoft's plan to nickel and dime these customers with extras needed later on? I mean I've seen it 50 plus times where a customer comes, buys a "core" because they don't really play games and just want to spend as little money as possible. They a week/month later they come in paying for the ridiculously over priced hundred dollar hard drive. I know for a fact that Microsoft makes more of a profit off of accessories than they do on system sales, so is it possible that's their plan? I don't think these people are stupid, just misinformed and taken advantaged of. On top of that retailers are forced to deal with this insanity. When is it all going to end? The sad thing, Never.

*Sigh*
David