That is a very good point and is something I spent a whole week considering when I was going to get a 360. The only difference is the colour, the fact one comes with free HDMI cable while the other does not and the fact that one has 60gb extra hard drive. When the Elite came out there was the additional difference that it had a HDMI output but now even the Arcade has HDMI output (although as with the Pro it obviously doesn't come with the free cable).

What made me have to delibrate for a week was I thought I could hook up the 360 to my PC and transfer music, videos and pictures to the hard drive. I would then be able to use the 360 as a full media device (as you would with PS3) rather than a Media Centre extender which requires your PC to be switched on. If you could dump your files on to the hard drive then the extra 60gb would be useful. Alas the 360 does not even allow you to do this. So I settled for the 360 Pro as there was just no added benefit in having an Elite.

I also have to say it is rather shocking and ridiculous that even the Elite doesn't have wireless built in and on top of that Microsoft charge £55 for the wireless adapter and prevent the use of 3rd party wireless adapters which would be much cheaper. My wireless is upstairs while my devices are downstairs and so wired internet wasn't an option for me and £55 for something that should be built in was too much of a rip off for me. In the end I had to buy a 10m cable which I run from the 360 to my PC and then use the wireless connection of the PC to go online. This means that not only do I need to keep PC on to play my media files on my 360 but I also have to keep PC on to go online. That's what I call real annoying.

It says right here that the HDMI cable is $49.99

Gamespot:http://www.gamestop.com/browse/search.aspx?N=0&Ntk=TitleKeyword&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntt=xbox%20360%20hdmi%20cable

Xbox.com:http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360hdmiavcable/

My point stands. You still save $100 because the you save $50 from upgrading from 60 GB to 120 GB. The 360 premium doesn't come with HDMI so if you buy the HDMI from Microsoft or Gamestop it saves you $50 extra. Add it up.

Yeah, it's annoying but understandable from a pirating standpoint.

One alternative is an external harddrive with all your music on, which you can plug into your pc when needed or into your 360 when needed. Not brilliant, but it works.

Or you can go here and spend $6 + S&H for an off-brand cable that does the exact same thing. The only reason anyone should want Microsoft's brand of HDMI cables is it comes with that silly sound dongle that goes in the normal AV slot. Which is basically smaller version of the piece the regular cables come with, minus the cables, and now you can run your sound to one unit and your video output to another. Had they just placed the HDMI slot a quarter inch lower then is you wouldn't need that either. =P

I tried that option for a day and then dropped it completely due to the fact that for some strange reason the 360 couldn't find (or rather recognise) my playlists on the external hard drive and if you can't play your play lists then there's no point at all.  What was even really annoying about this was that to connect to the 360 I had to format it to FAT32 which means I had to wipe the hard drive clean.  Before doing that I checked that all my pictures and music were on my PC internal hard drive but forgot to do that for my videos.  So by formating I lost all my videos (which was over 50 movies) for something that was not an ideal solution. 

or you could go to monoprice and get it for less and in different colors for easy cable identification.

If you buy a refrigerator in black or stainless steel it costs over $100 more then a plain white one so there is some value in the elite being black I say its at least a $20 value.

lol, I was doing the exact same thing, but you two beat me to it.

Anyway, anything more than that is a ripoff, I bought my HDMI cable for about $10 and that was probably more than I should have paid. Screw prices of $60 and above from stores.

At least the fridge is a huge appliance that gets alot more exposure in the kitchen.  I do agree that the colour has some value (although others might prefer white), although for most people it will be hiden in an AV rack or in an entertainment center.  I wonder what the reaction would be if they sold a black Pro SKU for $319. 

The Pro bundle also comes with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda (and I agree they could have picked a better bundle).