Sony did the same with the PS2 and now the PS3.  This is not out of the ordinary for either company.

For failure rates, I will admit that they are high for some people, but I have had 2 PS3's die on me, and have only had 2 360's die on me as well.  I play my 360's way more then my PS3's so, to me there is no difference in hardware quality.  I have been trying to fail my 360's by exposing them to dramatic shifts in temperature, wrapping them in towels, enclosing them in boxes, etc. to fail them before the warranty ends.  I have given up because I can't make it happen. 

My PS3's are given more ventilation, no exposure to negative electronic conditions and less play/blu-ray movie time, and they die like junk.

^ ive had a ps3 die on me also on the disc reading, but 360 is far far more likely to die on you

If the 360 had a failure rate of 33%!, That means out of all 18 million sold, BOD, 4 million broke. So they sold 18 mil. systems, but technically, only 14 mil actually worked right. My friend told me got RRoD yesterday. He had his 360 for 2 years and never played for more than 3 hours a week for the 1st year he had it. His brother played it the 2nd year for the same amount of time and it bricked 2 months ago. IDK about you guys, but I don't like living in fear while playing GeOW hoping my system won't crash on me. I shouldn't limit my time so that something that I paid MONEY for doesn't break at random. I've had my N64 for 11 years, still runs like bath water.

Heh, when the new gpu comes in i might force my 360 to rrod by leaving it on for a few days and covering the vent.

Three changes actually. The original MoBo Xenon, the Zephyr with the retrofitted cooling solution, the Falcon with the 65nm CPU and then Jasper with the 65nm CPU and 65nm GPU.

And yes, that should again reduce the percentage of RRoDs simply due to less heat being generated by the GPU, which was the source of most RRoDs. From there, it's just an issue of quality control.

As an added bonus, Jasper should use less power in addition to generating less heat, which means the fans should be running quieter as well. Additionally, Jasper will cost less to manufacture (more GPUs per slice of silicon, in addition to further streamlining of components) although it remains to be seen if that will immediately translate to MSRP price drops across the board.

Now if only they could do something about the 12x DVD drive. I have a BenQ and it's still noisy to the point of being distracting.

I wonder if the production costs of the 360 will be reduced with the new Jasper chip? This will mean more profit for MS with every console sold. Cheaper production costs will also mean the selling price of the console will be reduced. Cheaper production of consoles will obviously result in price cuts in all regions that will further boost sales.

 Er.. Someone must hate you. 

 This and exclusives might help them pick up the pace. Only thing holding down 360's reputation is RRoD.

I would say that the Falcons manufactured now would have a failure rate of around 5% so this should bring the failure rate inline with expectations.

Oh yea btw, 40% of laptops fail in 3 years and 30% of desktop computers. So its not that bad. (According to a warranty company)

Where did you get those numbers from?