People are just getting the Xbox because they CAN hack it, they CAN change the hard drive and stuff.
Mostly PC fanatics that got tired of fidling with their computers get the Xbox.
I do admit having all those emulators make it atractive to me, but Xbox has hardly a real good and big game library to warrant it's purchase.
I preffer a Gamecube 10 times over it and I would bet that if the GC was as hackable and filled with emulators as the Xbox is tons of people would buy more GC's.
It has become a point in purchase now that people actually consider being able to get burned copies or downloaded copies of games, being able to 'hack' the system to be able to watch/play internet downloaded movies/games/mp3s when buying a system.
And of course, the Xbox made them all wet with its 'features'
Look at the Dreamcast, even though the PSX was the first one that 'brought' us copies of games the Dreamcast was the first one that brought us emulators, lots of disks to view internet downloaded videos and much more.
Of course, to a person with a PC that means crap, but to a lot of other people it's an attractive point when buying a console.