My opinion on what they have failed on or what they could have done better.
New dashboard should have been released earlier. I do believe that if MS had released the new dashboard update and Xbox Live TV in September/October it would have created some buzz. I say that because of the total Kinect control would have been seen by many many more people before the peak holiday buying season. Last year people bought Kinect because they tried it early at friends, at malls, at department stores, events, etc. The general public needed to see this early. The mainstream press needed to try this earlier. Funny that I read a NY Times article on what Apple will do with AppleTV and Siri after the new iPhone launched. The NY Times believe that Apple will attempt to do what the new dashboard brings to the table. NY Times writer wasnt aware of this.
Cloud integration and Windows Phone integration with the new dashboard. We have seen some of the Cloud integration and a couple of demos of Windows Phone integration. Yet I believe they could have added more sooner and again got this out before the holiday buying season started. This would help both the 360 and Windows Phone. Apple has advertised iCloud with capabilities that Windows Phone and 360 should already have. Since day 1 Windows Phone has automatically saved pictures and videos you take directly to Windows Skydrive. Since the new dashboard uses the same Windows Live ID for Gamertag and cloud integration the new dashboard should integrate those pictures right into the new dashboard. If I pulled up photos from the 360 I should be able to just see photos taken with my phone. They showed this sort of integration with Windows 8 in September. They should have announced that you will see a preview of this with 360 and Windows Phone this fall. Games or at least minigames should be available now that integrate Windows Phone with the 360. Imagine a version of Fruit Ninja that has one person using the phone to control what fruits and obstacles are being thrown and the other using the Kinect to take them out. Again this should have been available weeks ago.
Pricing and bundling. We will see if the aggressive marketing and special deals MS seems to be financing will pay off as much as a across the board price cut on the various 360s and Kinect would have done. 1st and foremost anyone should be able to get any 360 for $50-$100 discounted this holiday and a Kinect for $99.99. Special Deals sometimes make people puchase sooner because they want to catch the deal, but will as many people know that deals are going on that would know about a price drop. Price drops get more picked up by the press. Special deals more advertised. Not to mention what is happening outside NA. The bundling of Carnival Games with Kinect was not the best choice. I think that they should have released a Halo CE Bundle with a specially designed 360. I think that the 4GB 360s should have an extra packin game for the holidays. Finally the Star Wars Special Edition should still have released with the software to come later.
Its libraries that sell systems not a single game.
