Preorder?

If that's the case, might as well order one in August. It's not going to matter anyway.

There are still many unknowns with regard to availability dates beyond the first batch.

Liz has said that she expects the first batch to become available from Farnell and RS within 7-10 days now that EMC tests have been passed, but nobody has ever said in what volume the two distributors are arranging new product to be manufactured and how soon.

Also, nobody has ever said what the stock levels and availability of the BCM2835 SoC is from Broadcom.  It's quite possible that manufacturing the 1+ million boards that are needed even before schools start ordering is just not possible at this time because of limited BCM2835 stocks and/or fabrication rates.  We just don't know, and nobody is saying.  (Roku 2 may still be in manufacture, and a large proportion of existing stocks of BCM2835 may be assigned to it contractually --- that's commercial information that we will never know.)

One thing that is easy to forecast is that there will be a period of nothing between the first batch appearing, immediately being sold out to preorders, and subsequent units becoming available.  I hope that period is managed well by providing the waiting masses with useful information on production levels, otherwise there's going to be continued uncertainty and unhappiness.

PS. Come to think of it, we don't even know what the state of the other 8,000 units of the first batch is.  Only 2,000 are in the UK so far.

There are still many unknowns with regard to availability dates beyond the first batch.

Liz has said that she expects the first batch to become available from Farnell and RS within 7-10 days now that EMC tests have been passed, but nobody has ever said in what volume the two distributors are arranging new product to be manufactured and how soon.

Also, nobody has ever said what the stock levels and availability of the BCM2835 SoC is from Broadcom.  It's quite possible that manufacturing the 1+ million boards that are needed even before schools start ordering is just not possible at this time because of limited BCM2835 stocks and/or fabrication rates.  We just don't know, and nobody is saying.  (Roku 2 may still be in manufacture, and a large proportion of existing stocks of BCM2835 may be assigned to it contractually --- that's commercial information that we will never know.)

One thing that is easy to forecast is that there will be a period of nothing between the first batch appearing, immediately being sold out to preorders, and subsequent units becoming available.  I hope that period is managed well by providing the waiting masses with useful information on production levels, otherwise there's going to be continued uncertainty and unhappiness.

PS. Come to think of it, we don't even know what the state of the other 8,000 units of the first batch is.  Only 2,000 are in the UK so far.