The only thing I can guess regarding the 997 is that the news from beta testing must be pretty bad. I can see no other reason for the Outlaw folks to not at least provide some sort of status information.
I was planning to get the 997, but I am having a hard time justifying why I should wait any longer with competitive products already released to the market and no information to help me understand if the 997 is coming out anytime soon.
For anyone from Outlaw who might be reading this, please remember that the people on these forums are mostly your loyal customers ... it's time for an update.