MS recognizes that most of the sales throughout the year are deliberated decisions. These people are buying the system because they want the system, not because there is a good deal at the time. They are much more flexible on the price.
Holiday shoppers are spontaneous and can easily be swayed by a lower price point. By capitalizing on holiday deals and maintaining a high official price MS has managed to get sales from both types of consumers while maintaining a hefty profit.
I don't know how well this approach will work for them in the next generation though as I foresee the PS4 and 720 being much more comparable in costs to manufacture. MS just kind of lucked out this gen because it took so long for Sony to drop to a decent price that MS appeared as the cheap option long after that was not even the case anymore.
How do you breathe again?
