Thanks Peter.
"...the release date is now targeted for late in the first half of this year."
I would be very disappointed, BUT for the past 8 months I've lived with the delay of one of our products being caused by - you guessed it - firmware. Evil firmware - more difficult than hardware. One bug fix hatches two more bugs. Our supplier's slow firmware development caused us to miss the holiday season with this one new product :-(
So, I'll hang tight. I assume you'll announce advance order placement at some time?