IMO I think there are 2-3 reasons for it......
1) Microsoft is trying to drain the channel of the old ~11.6m units that it sold, ensuring the older, faultier X360s are totally out of inventories before Halo3's launch. They are probably stockpiling the new ones at various distributor points in preperation for Halo3's launch.
2) Retailer stocks ARE dwindling vs. the rate of refresh. If ioi's 88,000 h/w sales is true, that's a huge step up from the tepid 40k it was seeing at one time 2 months ago. If that's true, the system could theoretically be supply constrained from the distributor>retailer point of view, again with MS cutting supply of the older systems.
3) Ninja Monkeys have invaded your local store of choice, and are hoarding the Xbox 360s for the release of Halo3, in order to ransom the scant few systems available for tons of bannanas.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
