It was an SKU change, not a price drop.  Sorry you don't understand this.  When the price of entry for the 2 main models does not change and all that changes is the HDD is upgraded to stay relevent with what is most cost effective, it isn't a price cut.

for the pro, ELITE had a price cut.

SKU change would be only adding HDD GB, but the whole SKU had a price cut.

Er, the only meaningful difference between the Pro and Elite was the size of their HDDs.  They simply phased out the Pro and brought the Elite down to it's old pricepoint, but basically all that really changed was the brand on the box, the color of the shell and the size of the HDD.

elite had a few extras, hdmi cable, and the color :p elite was cut,

sku change was elimnation the pro.

Not anymore, as of the $299 pricepoint they also dropped HDMI cables (comes with standard AV cables now).  It's literally a black Pro with a bigger HDD (120GB rather than 60GB). ;)

Pro originally came with component cables too btw, but those were also dropped when it hit $299.

@ "Price drop or not?" :
So if Mercedes drops the price of its V12's and V8's it's not really a price drop because it didn't drop V6's and 4L's?

A better analogy would be if Mercedes took the V8 body and put it on a V6 for the V6 price.  It is not a price cut.

Is that easier to understand?

Reality Distortion Field is a Steve Jobs trademark, you can't use it without his permission!!!

Anyway, calling Elite what's more like a beefed up Pro, MS just wanted to give people the message that Elite had a price drop, so it got what it wished, with all its pros and cons, it can't keep only the pros.