Saying they'd consider something means jack squat, and will most likely wind up being talk and nothing more. Any of these companies can easily say the same thing as long as their players are firmware upgradeable. Iriver people said that if a lot of people requested a feature such as lossless, they'd consider it, much like how things rolled with Ogg support after the fact....
Aside from that, I think the player design is inherantly flawed and stupid. Sure the body looks sexy, but what's the point if you'll NEVER hold it in your hand to navigate through folders/songs ? On top of that, the remote is really pretty big, and users have already been complaining about multiple remote failures, one after the other. If you ask me, it's a crippled player without a remote, and being limited to a remote only is a pretty enslaving thing IMO. Not to mention no line out, 10 hour battery life which is most likely closer to 8 with high bitrate Mp3's, and always having a mess of wires around.
Next......Believe me, there is going to be a rash of really nice players coming out in the next year or so. This one is a passer.