Its quite likely with Natal that they will redesign the hardware. Like Greenmedic said, its all to do with the image. What better way to dispel lingering reliability issues and to dispel preconceptions about what the console is at the same time?
I don't think the HDD is an important consideration, so long as they offer some way for current 360 owners to migrate to a newer console they will be fine. They could easily make the HDD slot loading or non replaceable. Afterall if they fit a 180GB or 240GB HDD next year they will be sure to satisfy 99% of the entire userbases needs.
Tease.







