The re-working required to roll in the 49700 and associated HDMI support would probably get pretty messy. It'd likely be easier to develop much of the platform from the ground up for the 49700. Aspects like the analog section might be easier to recycle, but in that case they could even look to something like the 970 (which had a pretty successful analog section from what I've heard) or just start with a clean slate.
Eastech has done some good work with Outlaw over the years (the 1050, as Peter Tribeman recently mentioned in another thread, is still a great platform). Having said that, I wonder if Outlaw hasn't already moved on from that partnership? The 990 has been very successful, which would suggest that they might keep cultivating the partnership with Etronics, and with the huge shake-up that HDMI v1.3 and the Cirrus delays have created it's possible that they've had reason to look for new partners as well.