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Well, can't say all this really comes as a surprise.
iRex was the first out of the gate with the largest and most hires reader (the DR1000), and actually in the customers' hands (Plastic Logic where art thou?) They also released a smaller, more affordable and mature version (the DR800) And they consistently failed to capitalize on that advantage. The missed holiday deadline is only a small part.
The biggest issue is the lethal combination of a very high price combined with a perpetually beta OS/UI (that now got chucked out completely in favor of a new one) You can't make people pay that much money to be a beta tester.
The lack of communication under those circumstances doesn't help either. At all. Most of the support to make the device worthwhile came from a forum like this one.
The 2.0 firmware is a big step in the right direction after years of floundering, but it's perhaps a case of too little way too late. (And there are still a number issues that have not been addressed since day 1, but that's for a different post) Opening up the source code is another good thing, but thanks to the niche they have put themselves in, there is only a small handful of volunteer coders to make use of it...
I sincerely hope they get things sorted out, not the least because I have a soft spot for small companies that release innovative products, but I suspect we won't find out anything about the process until either the complete closure is announced in the news, or we receive the occasional firmware update as a lifesign...
As one of the very early adopters, I'm sorry to say that I would not buy it again, esp. under current circumstances, and not to mention at the current higher price. I do not regret buying it however, and will keep using it for what it's worth (even though the new firmware doesn't have my most used feature anymore, have to figure out how to do change over everything)
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