Article from IGN.COM
New 60 GB Xbox 360 Announced
The new model will replace the discounted Pro.
by Ryan Geddes

US, July 13, 2008 - It's official. The Xbox 360 Pro model is now $299 and is being phased out in favor of a new SKU with more storage space, according to a news release sent out by Microsoft today.

Rumors of a price cut have been flying all week, and Target made it official from a retailing standpoint earlier today. But today's Microsoft press release is the first confirmation we've heard about a new SKU.

The 60 GB model will retail for $349, which the Pro model previously sold for. The Elite model, which comes with a 120 GB hard drive, remains at $449, and the Arcade SKU, which has no hard drive, is still $279.

"We know consumers need more and more space to store the amazing digital content Xbox 360 offers, and we're giving it to them at no extra charge," said Albert Penello, Xbox director of product management at Microsoft. "No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver, and now you'll have three times the storage to manage all that great content."

The new 60 GB model will be available in early August, Microsoft said, and the discounted Pro will only be available "while supplies last."

Okay, I'm completely on board with the price cuts, god knows we could use some over here in the UK, oh, what's that Microsoft? You don't care what Britain wants? You just expect us to keep paying twice as much as the US as we do for everything else? Ah okay.
Irregardless, I often wonder what the point in having a larger HDD for my 360 would actually be.
I download the odd movie on marketplace, every week or so a new demo, but I usually delete movies due to the laughable 24 hour timer on movies once you've watched them and demos usally suffer the same fate because once you've played them, they're pretty much useless to keep around.
Perhaps the real reason we're seeing an upgrade to 60gigs is because the PS3 has been offering more HDD space this entire time and MS want to get on the horse as well.

But perhaps instead of releasing yet another version of the 360, they look at the hardware problems still plaguing the current ones, red-rings, broken disk drives etc and stop lying to us that new hardware is any different from the last.
One suggestion to Microsoft would be to stop pretending. Yes I bought your console, yes I love it, it's a great laugh and a nice piece of machinery, but cut the nonsense Microsoft, give me a damn break.
Cut the prices of your 360's in the UK, give me some cheaper MS points so I can buy the crap you release on marketplace without worrying I'm going to go over my graduate overdraft to get the latest DLC. And for christ sakes fix the goddamn hardware issues in the current models before bringing out new ones that will probably end up being chucked out the window because you forgot to fix the problems that have been there all along.

Andy H