HDMI Equipped Xbox 360 At Retail. Core Being Phased Out?

In the wake of the official price drop of the Xbox 360, some strange things are happening in the world of Xbox.

First off, is the report and confirmation that HDMI equipped Xbox 360 Premium systems are now available at retail. You can see the story at Joystiq. This means you can get an HDMI 360 for a full $100 less than the Elite system ($350 compared to $450).

Next up, we have increasing rumors that the Xbox 360 Core system is going to be phased out entirely. See the story at Kotaku. We have seen documents from Best Buy and Target that both seem to indicate that this is true, but it could just be that those particular stores aren't going to carry the Core anymore and other still will.

These stories, along with a few others such as new heat sinks, and GameStop selling systems for dirt cheap (along with Amazon), seem to indicate that the recent price drop might have been intended to be more of a clearance of old hardware while new hardware (with HDMI, 65nm processors, quieter DVD drives, better heat sinks, etc.) is quietly "soft launched" at retailers. This is pure speculation at this point, but darn it if it doesn't make a lot of sense. What does it mean to consumers? Not much, really. Older model hardware will still play all of the games exactly the same as newer models, but you will (hopefully) run less risk of your system breaking down.