I just received Microtek's email response to my enquiry of several days ago. Hopefully, this means we'll be seeing it on the street this month:

Dear Mr. Kahn,

I received your e-mail. Thank you for your interest in the Microtek
ArtixScan M1 scanner. Production has begun, and we have received a few
shipments of the hardware. The hardware and firmware passed our quality
assurance tests. We are working on the final release of the software now.
Our internal software team and the software team at LaserSoft Imaging needed
some time after the release of the final hardware and firmware to finish
their development work. We have run our own tests on the Beta software with
the final hardware and firmware, and I am pleased to say that the image
quality from this scanner is excellent. We expect to finish our work within
two weeks and begin shipping units to distributors and resellers on November
19. I apologize for the delays.

I am in the process of developing a new Web site devoted to information
about the Microtek ArtixScan M1. I will post sample scans and insider tips
along with other useful information on this site. The URL is
www.ArtixScanM1.com. I encourage you to bookmark this site and check back in
a few weeks after we release the ArtixScan M1.

Best regards,
Parker

Parker Plaisted
Manager of Product Marketing
Microtek
16941 Keegan Ave.
Carson, CA 90746