The "model" that a certain computer / consumer electronics maker has of being highly secretive and then having a "Major Annoucement" followed by lines around its stores and hundreds of thousands units sold in a single day must surely be a fantasy for most folks that run other consumer electronics firms...

The unfortunate side effect of any announcement that comes before products have passed successfully through a beta test and into "full production" is that many buyers become disillusioned. There is a drift toward alternative products and more than a little "sour grapes" when the desired product finally does ship.

It does not take a super skilled MBA Marketing Genius to understand that once a firm adopts a model of "open communication" they need to to continue to provide feedback that will keep shoppers excited and "on the bus" instead of jumping ship to competing products.

Of course there are very real challenges for any audio company working to meet the demanding specs of current HDCP / HDMI handshake protocols and the risk that one runs in talking openly of those challenges is that not only might potential buyers be worried as to the number / size of the hurdles that come up but competitors and industry licensing programs might use such disclosures in an anti-competitive manner.

I fully understand why "the big guys" have in house lawyers to vet all such communication and I hope that even Outlaws can figure out a way to soon send up some "white smoke" about when the big container ship might reasonably be expected in port...