Well, on an "up-note" and always being a person to be able to see the glass half-full rather, at LEAST Access IS releasing something! This also means that unbeknownst to anyone else, that Access may INDEED announce something new and cool at NAMM! I say this emphasising that a big part of being competitive is not showing your competetors what you may have up your sleeve because otherwise, company "B" may rather than wait until a product is actually complete, releasing it barely with it's "baby clothes" on such as case with Elektron's Analog Four. The O.S. is not even half-complete, no user manual because they are not even SURE if they can impliment projected specs! THAT's unacceptable marketing laced with greed and too much more psychologically to even go into here. I used that example because it truely shocked me because what they are BANKING ON is those diehards like *some* Apple "loyalists" that will stand in lines outside a store for days for the next iPhone when Apple had JUST released their last iPhone or iPad not even 6 months prior! It's a bit like the "sheep/sheeple" mentality. I swear Apple could put their brand on a toilet seat and charge $600. and those same "loyalists" would be in same lines! None of these companies would even attempt such things if people did not allow themself to be manipulated, let alone think FOR THEMSELVES!!
Remaining optimistic here that Access is currently working on something new and big. Would even be openly filled with glee if they released a hardware advanced polyphonic sequencer with innovative sampling that could be ALSO side-chained in a Ti set-up with ability to map those samples and morph across key-range

Happy Thanksgiving!