It's hardly ideal, but I think their target audience is likely to generate a fairly healthy sales volume. The $499 price is lower than I think most beta testers were expecting, which helps, and judging by the AVS thread there are a fair number of folks who have been saving their pennies specifically for this player since last fall.

By the way, folks, once the EAP kicks off officially the NDA on beta testers will be adjusted. Discussion of ongoing testing will be off-limits, but discussion of everything relating to features and performance of player and the EAP firmware will be allowed. With that in mind, I'm going to try to have a first-pass review ready to post when the NDA is loosened and will simply update it later once the EAP ends and the official product launch takes place.