Doug,
I truly hope your right, but a number of well-established US and EU Leica dealers are advertising the S2 and pre-orders, so that and the comments from the PR event would suggest Leica is treating this (so far) like a large format DSLR vs a MFDB wrt distribution. That or a LOT of Leica dealers are about to get royally PO'd.
I also can't see Phase being too happy about say picking up the S&S heavy lifting if they're not also the exclusive channel. If Phase is simply supplying C4 and say advising Leica on how to improve their helping S$S in return for optical tech; that, while nice, is a process of change that will take years and a far cry from what was alluded to.
There was a LOT of enthusiasm among a LOT of users here and on many other forums when the Phase link-up was attached to the S2. To the degree that I was surprised. That said, this trickle of contradictory information carries with it a a very real risk of having many of these initially enthused potential buyers muttering 'typical Leica' and putting the idea of an S2 aside well before the product is even in production. It also runs the risk of PO'g Phase.
Phase says one thing and understands X. Leica execs say differently, evidence at the Press event backs up the insider info - as does the information Leica is obviously imparting to dealers. Both Leica and Phase dealers trying to find out what the @#$% is actually going on. Lovely.
I'm from the world of M&A and Strategic Alliances and while the press releases invariably over-state how much both parties love one another and will do together, for such contradictory streams of info flow to be coming out so soon after the deal is made public is startling.
Usually everyone is told here is the agreed-upon party line (vs reality in many cases) and this is the script you, employee (Phase or Leica) will adhere to, even if you don't know the particulars -- cocktail in hand or not, regardless of who you are talking to. In this case, it looks like we don't even have a party line, let alone a script.
An alliance that looked on day one like a strategic coup by both parties and a hell of a foot in the door for Leica into the MFDB revenue stream is now starting to LOOK like a bad Marx Brothers routine. That IS NOT the mindset Leica should want ANY prospective S2 customer to have - they can't afford it.
While it may all work out in the end and get clarified to the point everyone is happy-happy, it needs to be addressed and quickly.
This is not a reflection on you or any other Phase or Leica dealer, you''re caught in the same mess, if not worse, as everyone else. It is a reflection of the folks who put the deal together and opened it's kimono to the public.