You likely won't see a 997 on the street until the end of summer at the earliest. Figure the 972 won't hit the streets for at least 2 weeks and when you delay the 997 by at least 60 more days you are at the beginning of August. With all the interest in the 997 it is going to be hard to get one at first. I hope someone like Gonk is already testing the beta version since it sounds like the platform is semi-solid. With all the changes in firmware factored in, it may be Xmas before the machine is ready to just buy off the shelf. I don't mind the delay since I want one for Xmas anyway.