Your joking right?

360 still sells a ton of software every week, and has been profiting on prices since 2008.....and held those prices this whole time while upping the value. 

The profit margins on 360 are much higher then X1 and are likely padding X1's early launch losses.

That was when the console was first released at $500. With all the price drops they are losing a lot of money now on each console.

Well, I'll give you this. Once Microsoft shuts down Xbox live for the 360 the number of live users will drop massively. If they're at 40 million right now then expect it to fall to around 20 million in 2016.

Temporary, retail specific, price drops. Software and Xbox Live marketplace revenue come to mind?

That is without Xbox 360 hardware profit margins, software and LIVE revenue padding

$500 is still the msrp.  A week where retailers had a sale does not equal a permanent price reduction.  Also, as manufacturing has geared up, the margin could only have gotten larger.  

In essence i agree. I think the division does not have the potencial to become a big market dominator like Microsoft always aims for. They have competitive strengths in the American and to some regard the UK market, but they have too many weaknesses in the remaining markets, wich makes beeing a clear leader an almost impossibility.

I am sure they cant be too pleased with it. Especially if they have to take losses on it again to remain competitive.
A different company might've been happy with that (like Nintendo and SEGA), but Microsoft i dont think is satisfied with it. All that money could be invested on a different business with potencially alot bigger returns.

This isnt Microsofts main business afterall. Unlike their competitiors.

I don't think Microsofts primary aim was to dominate the market as much as to prevent others from dominating the market.  It was a failure by microsoft to read the tea leaves.   They thought video games were the next big thing that would take over the pc market and dismissed the mobile market.  They should have pushed into the mobile market.  

That being said, I don't see them leaving the video game market either.  It does conflict somewhat with their pc business, but they have carved out a pretty big chunk of the market and I don't see them letting it go anytime soon...

I dont see them exiting the market, but i am sure they are looking into selling the division. To have someone like Amazon running Xbox could potencially be more beneficial for it than Microsoft with the bad reputation they cultivated in the last years on the market.

I happen to know one of the original contributors to the Intel 4004 processor design.  The work he did still exists today in modern processors.  He architected UPS's distribution network in Europe, was a fellow at Cambridge where he was a professor, as well as teaching at several other universities and colleges.  He opened one of the first computer store chains, and still today works on application and system code for companies.

He's not a gamer.  He's buying an Xbox One.  Why?  Because the Xbox One is more powerful than the PS4.

Sure, the PS4 has the specs for the memory, but hidden within those 15 other processors on the APU is a processor that he's excited about and he wants to play with.  The implication is that Microsoft has significantly more in store for the Xbox One than the PS4 could ever hope to achieve.

perhaps, if they can find somebody that is big enough that isn't a direct competitor to microsoft... which would probably be pretty difficult.  Amazon competes with its kindle devices and I don't see microsoft giving them more ammunition.  As long as the xbox division isn't accruing massive lossess, I see it staying put.