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Xbox One X is the Perfect Representation of the Tech Industry's Existential Crisis (mashable.com)
A reader shares commentary on the newly launched Xbox One X gaming console: Fundamentally, Xbox One X is the same machine that Microsoft released in 2013. It plays the same games, runs the same apps, depends on the same operating system. You can still plug your cable box into it and watch OneGuide magically sync with your local TV listings. Most of the things you can do look a little better and run a little faster/more efficiently, sure. The actual casing is smaller than the previous iterations, too. It's a gorgeous $500 machine. That's why I keep eyeballing it. My brain screams, "Why do you exist?" The Xbox One X does not answer. This is a familiar problem in 2017. Look around at all the tech in your life and do a quick, informal poll: How many of those items become outdated every year or every few years when a newer, shinier version of the same thing comes along? I'm talking about your iPhone and iPad. Your Amazon Echo and Kindle. Your Pixel and Daydream VR headset. Your Apple Watch. Your Roku, your Apple TV, your Chromecast. Incremental upgrades that push features like 4K! HDR! Wireless charging! Slimmer design! No headphone jack! (Wait, no, that last one is awful.) Breathless bullet point after breathless bullet point. Some of these additions have genuine utility and add value to the product. Many don't, or depend on you also possessing some other piece of incrementally upgraded tech (like the kinds of fancy-shmancy TVs that play the nicest with Xbox One X).
You don't have to buy every new generation of every product.
For example, I've got an iPhone because I got in the walled garden before there were other good options. I don't buy a new iPhone every time a new one comes out. In fact, I usually wait 2 to 3-ish full generations to upgrade. By that time the upgrade has enough improvements for it to be worth it for me.
But Apple has no reason to follow my personal upgrade schedule and only release new versions when I am ready to upgrade. For one thing, there's probably plenty of other people who follow a similar plan but are one generation ahead or behind me. For another, there is a pool of idiots who want the latest because it is the latest.
For the XBox One X, there's going to be a lot of people who did not buy an XBox One for whatever reason, and are upgrading now. There's also a set of people who want 4k resolution. But it's not like the XBox One was suddenly rendered inadequate for the vast majority of people merely due to the existence of a more advanced version.
Don't see the point of an XBox One X? Then don't buy one. That applies to every product on the market, no matter how long the feature list is.