There wasn't any confusion. The only way to really do this is to produce more Xboxen for day 1 than needed, that should be obvious. If you think you can likely build 1.5m for day 1, designate 1m as day 1. That way if you come in at only 1.2m, you're still good. But that will leave 200k non day 1's going on day 1. But that doesn't matter, that's gravy, those people weren't promised day 1.
Wow, there's staggered release dates, just like the PS4 in Japan. Amazing. You will get it day 1 for your country, as you already know.
Many retailers, like Wal Mart (largest USA retailer) did not. Amazon was on the ball so they created their own distinction. Regardless, the situation is more muddy and confusing for lack of day 1 edition. Hence the original post I replied to where the guy was speculating August was the arbitrary pre-order cutoff date for getting your PS4 day 1 or not. Dont worry, I'm sure Sony will have figured it out by PS5.
I agree if you're smart enough, get the Amazon guaranteed edition. However only like 5% of people will do that. And it's still confusing since it's the same PS4, the only difference is Amazon making a different SKU (or landing page on the web) where there is none.
This is how past console launches were always done, but it seems pretty clear to me day 1 editions are a great idea and they should be adopted industry wide going forward. You also get a little bit of collecters factor or making the buyer feel special and all that jazz (though naturally I would have preferred they added more value than just cosmetic, such as a free year of Gold).
In other news, today marks 5 weeks until US release of PS4 (of course X1 one week after)...