Xbox 360 Premium consoles furnished with an HDMI port are already on shop shelves in North America, Microsoft has confirmed.

As many of our lovely and terribly clever readers will know, HDMI stands for 'High-Definition Multimedia Interface', and is capable of sending a high-definition, uncompressed digital audio-video stream between your console and TV. Simply put, it's the bee's knees of fancy connections.

However, the cheaper Core model of Microsoft’s console will not be benefiting from such a port, casting yet another ominous question mark over its future. The Xbox 360 Elite, of course, has boasted an HDMI socket all along.

"Yes, we are offering an HDMI port for Xbox 360 simply as another choice in Xbox 360 owners’ games and entertainment experience," stated a Microsoft representative to Shacknews. "Retailers are gradually introducing HDMI-enabled Xbox 360s into the channel to meet demand. We have not announced any plans to add HDMI to the Xbox 360 Core System," he added.

And Microsoft has wasted no time whatsoever in getting the consoles out to the public; currently, it looks like retailers are clearing out the very last of the non-HDMI-equipped machines, before they begin pushing the updated model.