We'd hoped to be able to bring it to market at a lower cost, but with all the hardware changes, it's impossible, especially due how retail business works.
You're right though, we need to get things done quickly, but we also need to get things done right. We've already had way too many issues and we can't go into retail with some of those issues, as you only get one chance.
I believe we're on the right track and I'll be sharing more details of the notifications and automation as soon as I can, but it'll be on our blog, rather than in the forums.