The problem with your solutions is that they all require time to implement. Time that MS does not have. Software isn't just something MS can cook up overnight. And its not like the competition will be sitting on their hands not making great software too. Right now worldwide MS is like 3ml consoles behind its primary competitor in just 6 months on the market. That is just wrong so early in especially when you consider that you are in an industry where word of mouth is the biggest marketing strategy.

Removing kinect was a brilliant move by MS, their real big mistake was that they should have always made it an option from the start, $399 without and $499 with it. You only need to mandate hardware that is attributive to the platforms primary functions eg. a controller. Kinect is and was always just a novelty whose existence doesn't really make or break the primary way the console is used.

The most immediate remedy to any sales problem is a price drop, the only way MS could afford to do that so early is to take out the one thing that impacts the console the least. Though I don't think price parity is good enough.

This

I think this is exactly the same mistake Nintendo made with the Gamepad. They kept waiting for the games as if their competition was going to sit around and not make games as well. Now we see the results.

They should've done this as well on the first year of the console.

while 100% completely true, Microsoft not only is offering a new option to purchase an xboxone without kinect packed in, they also stated they will be taking "Kinect centric software resources over to be used instead of for kinect now to be applied to the GPU"

what that in effect is a reduction to allocated Kinect "only" RESOURCES to now be applied to other things outside of just kinect! before Kinect was the only part getting those compute resources now those compute resources that were for "kinect only" are now being shared!

That is a problem, for those that really like kinect, as for my opinion, i infact agree with the OP Microsoft i think is unwise to not include Kinect with every Xboxone, i even stated to those that said they need to get rid of kinect, I always said kinect in my opinion was a very good idea for advancing a unique aspect for the xbox platform, now With VR having Kinect for every xboxone would be more ready to include VR to the base of the xbox platform for added entertainment value for the consumer. by Split of Kinect to no longer be a pack in with the xboxone as a base pack in the add of VR to the xboxone will in effect keep the user base split further. In my opinion Microsoft "forked" the platform for short gains instead of long term perception viability of clear Platform Focus!

Not saying it may not have been a good idea from Microsoft's standpoint, but from a consumer standpoint they changed the platforms focus from always having "Kinect to be packed in" to now some times its packed in, if xboxone's number get a multiple increase of 2 times or 3 times increase purchase of xboxone, and does indeed pass Sony's PS4 what happens to kinect's support from here on out?

No matter what has been done right now for the xboxone the change from its starting "focus" is there and that change may be good or Bad, but to many consumer's it does show the platform Holder's have no clear defined focus for the xboxone platform the more Microsoft does this.

This gen and last gen have shown me that consumers don't care about value, they care about price.

With the launch PS3 you got built-in wifi and a blu-ray player. Did people care? Nope, the 360 played games and was much cheaper. With the X1 you get a voice commands and a movement tracking camera. Do people care? Nope, the PS4 plays games and is much cheaper.

This is exactly what the OP  I THINK IS TALKING ABOUT! yest the xboxone is 3 million behind, but are you making the system "just for the money" or are you building a product for a strong foundation of growth for keeping the installbase to keep coming back, to stick with your product!, its one thing to be behind by that much and say hey were really behind right now, we have to make a change, but to split off your core product design focus for that change is not something you would want to do, if it results in reduction's to the perception of the company's lack of focus.

Again if the xboxone is selling faster than even the freaking xbox360 at the time of release, how is that such a bad sales through point?

its one thing to say, well so n so is selling so much better than we are right now, but to up and quite your core platforms real starting focus so quick shows lack of conviction to that platforms core design!

The fact that the xboxone was pitched to the consumer and investment community as "Kinect was the core system function of its design" and now you are selling the base unit without, it would have been one thing to start off with the xboxone split like this, but doing it this way Microsoft has effectivley now forked Kiect from being "requuired" to now being an optional component! it has lost a part of its core platform identity!

by doing this, one could say they are making sure they are averting a failure, which can indeed be true, but again if Microsoft's xboxone is selling faster than the xbox360 was in the same point in time, do you think Microsoft doing this is more damageing to the overall points of the xboxone's platform perception about what the platforms focus was about than; to what it will be in the future?

And I would have certainly used my Kinect a lot more!

1. Its bad because the PS4 is selling better than the PS3 and the 360 that also was selling better than the PS3 in the one part of the world that MS had a strong fothold. Thats why they ae in panic mode. 

2. Its great that MS turned away from kinect now, its a sinking their ship, if they keep stubbornly holding onto it then they would do more damage than good. That core design platform you are talking about was wrong from day one. Right before E3 last year. They should have stuck with what sony did and just made an awesome game console first and foremost. You can't build your platform like you live in a bubble. That is what MS is paying for now.

they said kinect cost was almost half of XBO total cost.
So, selling by 400$ a kinect free XBO must be a good deal for them, they would profit more per console sold.
They was also profiting more with kinect xbo than sony with ps4.

As they are profiting there is more room to drop the price. So i think it was the right decision.
if it dont sell well, they can cut the price even more.

Well, it would have been a good idea if they made it cheaper than the PS4. As of now, the One is just a weaker PS4 with a couple different games. Kinect helped it differentiate.

They shouldv'e taken the hit and sold the XB1 at 399 with Kinect and some killer software. I mean, the webcam and playroom was enough to get people to buy the PS Cam, and you don't even need it for voice controls or streaming.

The Kinectless bundle will undoubtedly increase sales for a while, since those waiting for it without the Kinect can finally go ham, but its only a short term solution for a long term problem. The issue just wasn't of price alone. Where was the value in the Kinect 2.0?