Vapor ware at it's finest. I don't know who takes the crown, Roger or garth from Chicken Systems. I would agree with the general "better to take his time then release it before it's ready". However, the universe is based on time and you can't expect people to wait forever. They should have never announced it until it was in beta testing.
Looks like Akai will have no real competition from Mr. Linn in the flagship area. The link above shows that he is going in another direction and releasing a budget version of the Linn drum. Not only will it not come out until 2010 or never, it won't be anything really special or a game changer. Even if/when it does come out, it will still take maybe another year to get the bugs sorted after it is released to the masses anyway. This is regardless of the time it is taking to get to the first production unit. So we have at least 1-2 years to wait for a stable competitor to the MPC 1000.
What will Akai do? Take advantage of this or keep on with business as usual?
Those waiting on this can stop holding their breath now.