Just an update - finished a phone call a few minutes ago with Synta China and was speaking to a lady there who stated that "... due to technical issues with the EQ7 design that the engineers could not resolve it's been canned!
An EQ8 model is currently being designed and could be ready by end of 2011 at the latest; or could be earlier if possible and when I mentioned that a so-called informed source had indicated end Feb 2011 release date for the new EQ8 model she said "... not possible because our engineers are still working on the new design" - finally I was advised to call Tasco to find out when it would become available to the Oz market
Well that's all I got for now! Still not too sure if I did speak to the right person in the organisation or not (should have perhaps got K Rudd to call instead, his Mandarin is better than mine!
) but that's what I could glean so far
PS: Quotes of conversation are not verbatim - my interpretation
HTH
Cheers
Bill