A little thought experiment:
The OP1 (which we all love) is starting to be considered “dated”.
From a hardware side, why is this: processor and I/O.
So what if TE came out with a device that uses an external processor for all of the synth/seq/recording etc, and external I/O that attach to it?
Then you wouldn’t have to worry about the CPU/DSP being obsoleted right when it finally goes to market. If it could merely use a smartphone or a tablet, those devices could use apps from TE that has the user experience, and the hardware could be simpler and not as prone to becoming dated.
The smartphone/tablet engine could be upgraded by the user as they become more powerful and as new interfaces (USB c, Bluetooth midi, etc) become adopted.
The hardware from TE could resemble the OP1, but wouldn’t need a screen as that would be on the smartphone/tablet.
Ok. Now look at the OPZ.