First I would say Microsoft has been more equitable with Europe then has Sony. Another poster said this Sony brought the console to the market half a year later after the North American and Japanese launches. Then to rub salt in the wounds Sony charged much more for the console in Europe then they did in the other markets. Then brought the fine folks in Europe a technologically inferior product. Sony shafted Europe three ways from Sunday.
Microsoft's decision probably has more to do with manufacturing difficulties then anything else. For five to six months they had a severe production shortfall when one of their contracted manufacturers defected. So their production fell in half, and they began to outsell their supply. That has been rectified now, but they do not have a large surplus of consoles in the channel.
One of these contracted manufacturers has probably been converted over to the production of the new model, but that is hardly enough to supply all three regions simultaneously. First Microsoft has to fill one market, and once that channel has sufficient surplus then they can start selling the newer models in the other market. Tragic yes but hardly something that a manufacturer can do much about. They have a limited supply of the units and want to ensure the supply meets demand in North America before they spread the new units out to other markets.
I think it is easy to forget that Microsoft like Nintendo suffered from a issue with demand outstripping the supply. There problem was a defection late last year that they did not remedy until the spring. By all means look at Microsoft's shipped to retailers numbers against total unit sales. Given the impending holiday season it is probably likely they could not cover both markets without outstripping their supply.
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