Wasnt the HDD considered standard in the 360 at first? At least people expected it would be, because I remember all hell broke loose when they announced the core package.
Sony otoh never confirmed having a HDD as standard up to very late in the development stage of PS3. I remember Kutaragi saying something like "HDD is required for games, but we havent ruled on it coming standard with the system".. Everyone was like, whaa? Then a few months later, at E3 2006 no less Hirai announced that it would come standard with the system.
I wonder is Sonys delay of announcing a standard harddrive had anything to do with MS not making it standard?`Maybe they thought they could save a buck?