Who will bring the next holy grail of synth/sampler?

The holy grail of music making, is a sampler, sequencer, & programmable synthesizer for a price of $500-$600. I believe that companies are working to create an economical hardware product with these features by next year. What company would be able to pull this off? Korg or Akai? Lets see...




Korg:
With Korg's latest, and ugliest, Microkorg XL, we have an analog synth engine that also combines PCM waveforms. This is a perfect platform that could be upgraded even farther. Its easy to use and is super powerful. It even has a vocoder. If Korg decided to take this technology, add a sampler with card memory, then an onboard sequencer, call it the XXL, it would be an instant success.

Next we have...




Akai:
Akai is also poised to break the price/feature barrier. The very expensive MPC3000 has all the technology to be the standalone music station. Right now its selling like crazy. But what would sell even more units would be an upgraded MPC500 (XL), which had that same synthesizer engine.

Since Akai would only have to add the synth engine to their MPC500, and Korg would have to develop both sequencer and sampler, I believe that AKAI will be the clear winner in this race.
In conclusion there are people willing to pay $3000 for this much power, but even more people that can't afford this and will buy anything else. The first company to offer this much power for a lesser price $500-$600 will win and have more stable income. Lets just hope this hardware comes from a reputable company!