There's been nothing announced, but I'll offer my best SWAG. The one feature that will drive development of a replacement for the 990 is HDMI v1.3. The merits of v1.3 over v1.1/v1.2 are somewhat debatable (see my
HDMI FAQ if you're interested in a capsule summary of the mess that is HDMI), but the market is demanding it so that's where the product line has to go. HDMI v1.3 was only published six months ago, and the initial push by chip makers was to get HDMI transmitter boards ready (the PS3 needed it, as did other HD-DVD and Blu-ray players). As a result, HDMI v1.3 receivers (the chips needed for surround receivers and processors) lagged a bit behind. That's where my SWAG comes in - I don't believe that it'll be possible for a company Outlaw's size to get an HDMI v1.3 processor on sale before the end of this year.