Yes, it is indeed cheap for a new system, cheaper then the other alternatives except the dreamcast. But it feels like Nintendo has let us european gamers down, they announced a world wide simultanious launch and when they finally launch they do it in stages with europe being the last one.
If I were to live an eternity I am almost certain that I would never see european gamers needs being met before the others. I had my mind set on mars, the month not the planet, and now when the date is finally announced and set it is almost a year later then the japaneese launch, and when thinking back on my prior Nintendo history, delays are still posible.
I do realize that if europe would have used the NTSC video format it the GC would have been here by now, if only supply could be met. But instead of punishing us for using another video format, PAL, Nintendo have made slight modifications to the GC hardware and is pushing developers to make NTSC to PAL conversions worthy european gamers, hopefully this is the end of letterboxed NTSC to PAL conversions...
http://cube.ign.com/news/41252.html