Paul Therrott has been saying the end of April for several months now. This isn't new news really. He also is on record confirming there are 2 Xbox consoles coming out this year. Not 2 SKUs.. 2 consoles. If you do the math, look back at older rumors and leaks this likely means..
1. Xbox "Loop" - a settop box, like AppleTV that is running streamed services with powerful enough GPU/specs to run current XBLA games+futuregen digital games. Super cheap, like $99-149
2. Xbox "Durango" - the true successor to the 360, full fledged console.
The idea is that MS is going to get out the nextgen gate running, in that they instead of pricing a console high and taking years to discount it to hit mass market sales. They will penetrate both markets immediately. For instance..
*note : made up pricing
Nextgen consoles :
Playstation
PS4
(2) SKUs
(1) Lower tier, less features : $449
(1) Higher tier, full experience : $549
Prices remain this for 2 years, then $50 drop. Wait another year or 2 for $100 drop and prices stay there until the end of the gen.
Xbox
"Durango"
(2) SKUs
(1) Lower tier, less featuers : $399
(1) Higher tier, full experience : $499
Prices remain this for 2 years, then $50 drop. Wait another year or 2 for $100 drop and prices stay there until the end of the gen.
"Loop"
(1) SKU
(1) Bottom tier, offers digital games and media consumption : $99-149
Price remains the same for 2 years, then $50 drop. Stays there until the end of the gen.
With this market, MS beats Sony to the bottom-line mass market day 1. As far as consumers see it, they can get into the Xbox brand day 1 for a discounted price, and honestly.. thats all that matters to many consumers. But with this I feel it would canabalize their own market.. so the "Loop" will come out 6 months after the Durango has built the brand and platform. Then introduce the affordable cousin that does less.