One thing we have learned during this generation is that adding horsepower is not the key to success, as the difference between generations in performance alone becomes more and more trivial for the general audience. Even though I am definately a tech enthusiast myself and like to see improvement in raw number crunching power and polygon counts, I also think that the next generation should concentrate on other aspects of deepening the immersion apart from the graphics. Look at Wii. Also look at PS2. Sure the one thing that Sony loved to emphasize about PS3 was it's power, but there was a reason why it is there. It is not just for the sake of power itself, but to ensure the relevancy during the upcoming years, making sure that there is still more power for the developers to tap as they become familiar with the console.
So sure, PS3 and 360 will not be the meat cutting edge of tech (and they are not that even now), but they don't need to be. The console consept is about a stabile, standardized environment, not jumping in (sic) on every step of tech innovation. This actually might be where microsoft will fail the next generation - introducing the next console too early, and the console being too similar with 360 conceptually.
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