No "Real" Pricecut ???

[Millennium]

I would suggest that a "real" price cut is a price cut that makes a permanent change to the way people buy a product. This would be opposed to, for example, a fire-sale where a discontinued model temporarily drops in price to clear inventory, but over the long term the way people buy the product does not change. For example, the fire-sale of the 20G PS3s back in 2007 was not a real price cut, but the 2009 price cut was.

Where does the Elite fit into this? It's tough to say, because Microsoft has blurred the lines a bit. In 2010 you can buy something called an "XBox 360 Elite" for less than you could buy something called an "XBox 360 Elite" in early 2009, and so from that aspect it could be called a price cut. However, as noted above, the models also changed; one was discontinued, and a new model was introduced at a lower price. In that sense, it could be said that the old Elite did not get a price cut at all: it was simply killed, and something new with the same name put up in its place.

My personal opinion is that it's correct to say that the Elite got a price cut. Microsoft did indeed pull some disingenuous tricks to drive down the price, but the basic ways you can buy a 360 have in fact become cheaper, and the brand name was preserved across the move.