IDC analyst Billy Pidgeon has declared that the arrival of the Xbox 360 Elite will not likely improve Microsoft’s market share for 2007.

In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Pidgeon stated, "The Xbox 360 Elite may sway some gamers waiting to decide on a new system, but I don't expect the Elite to have much an effect on the 360's market share this year.”

“The higher price and the 120GB hard-drive upgrade should increase revenue for Microsoft and for retailers, but system-selling games such as Halo 3 will increase the 360's position more significantly."

Furthermore, Pidgeon observed that Microsoft is clearly employing an "aggressive" bid to win the console war, noting that the company are competing against both PS3 and Wii, the latter of which Nintendo believe to be in a different market from Microsoft and Sony altogether.  

“The 360 is in more direct competition with the PS3, but Microsoft is going after first place and sees Nintendo as a competitor as well”, he added.

“With the 360, Microsoft is extending the online capabilities of Xbox Live including downloads of long form video as well as games and game add-ons, and the point of increasing the hard-drive to 120GB is to enable 360 Xbox Live gamers to download more items more often”, Pidgeon continued.

“Extending Live to Vista systems will also increase Microsoft's online audience, which is an important metric now and going forward.”

He also anticipated a price drop for the Xbox 360 premium package, stating "It'd be better for Microsoft to sell through existing Core systems before lowering the Premium SKU to the Core price, which would achieve both a price cut and a value add.”

"It will be interesting to see how the 120GB hard-drive will do as an upgrade options for current Xbox 360 owners. Uptake on the larger hard drive will increase the potential for Xbox Live downloads, but the price is a bit steep."