Minelab needs this machine to head off the ATX, but they won't have it for a while The North America/Australia market seems to be the target for this ad - where they describe it as "the ideal machine for those who are beginning to gold prospect". Garrett is working hard to make a splash in these markets with the ATX, and before this announcement, ML's only PI alternative for the beginning gold prospector was to buy a GPX machine. By pre-announcing this new detector, they are offering "non consumption" as an alternative. They are saying to prospective ATX buyers "wait for our machine - we are the real pros and you will be glad you waited". This will no doubt work in many cases and may turn out to be good advice if the new machine is superior to the ATX.
A couple of things however. The ATX is here now, and in parts of the Southwest, gold hunting season is the winter - summer is just too hot. You can buy an ATX now, use it all winter - and next spring or summer decide if the new ML is better for your needs. If so, you will be one of the first to offer an ATX used, so the cost for a season's detecting could be as little as a few hundred dollars.
The other thing is that this announcement will also cause some "non-consumption" of GPX machines. If the release is only a few weeks away, then there is no big problem. If it is months away however, that's another matter. I looked up the lead time on the ML CTX - from detailed announcement to dealers saying that they had units in stock - and it looked like about 1 month. Hopefully this won't take longer, but a month from 9 Dec. pretty well excludes Christmas.
Minelab also needs this machine in their far more important Asian, African and South American Markets. It was apparently already shown in Brazil at a dealers conference. In these markets, not only is the presumably lower price an issue, but the rugged construction and simpler battery arrangement allowing the use of cheap alkaline batteries which don't require recharging. If you are in a thatched hut village in the Nile River State of Sudan, recharging batteries can present a problem and even though disposable batteries cost more, the logistics are overall simpler.
When it is actually released, it will present the same dilemma vs. the GPX5000 that the ATX presents (and the TDI for that matter) - namely, how much of what I need from a gold detector can this new machine do vs. a GPX 5000. If the new ML machine is as capable as the ATX, the question will come up. If it is more capable than the ATX, then the GPX-5000 will come in for even more competition for consumer $$.
The optimum solution from ML's viewpoint would be for this new machine to be at least 90% as capable as the GPX and clearly superior to the AXT while selling in the same price range. They would then replace the GPX with their new Advanced Gold Detector. As Steve has pointed out however, this advanced machine is apparently not slated for a 2014 release.
Exciting times!
............past experience with X-Terra. 
