I'd wager if Microsoft hammered out some mass quantity Zalman fan deal or even springed a few extra bucks for some decent paste they would save money over the long haul not repairing consoles burning up from stupidly hot chips.
Based on the current generation x86 CPUs, it seems we've made a lot of headway in regard to the amount of heat produced by chips. The PowerPC-based CPU wasn't
that hot compared to other CPUs from its time, but it really just had terribly inadequate cooling. When I fixed my original 360, I was a bit surprised at how small the heatsink was as I've seen larger heatsinks on a motherboard's chipset. The fan was also ridiculously small as it looked like a 40MM fan.
It does make me wonder if Microsoft will go with IBM again and build another PowerPC-based machine. It would probably be the best from a compatibility standpoint, but I'm not sure how powerful the current crop of PowerPC chips are compared to their x86 counterparts.
i would imagine the next xbox has kinect built in, and likely the absolute most killer media software to date. they didnt do a very good job of making the 360 a media device, and i know that is one thing they want to beat sony in.
I think the current rumor is that the next XBOX will feature the upgraded Kinect unit, but I doubt that it will be bundled
with all units. There will most likely be a bundle sold with a Kinect (2?) like there is now.