If they are being discontinued then it must only mean that Yamaha is coming out with something better. It seems absurd that Yamaha would not have a high profile product out there especially since they now own Steinberg.
The 01X is certainly still cutting edge and maybe the price will continue to drop on them. I love the concept of mlan and one of my controllers a CME uf 8 is mlan compatible.
None of the other front ends like Tascm,maudio or pro tools offer onboard dsp in hardware form on their controllers,thats one up for Yamaha in my book. Some of them are missing motorized faders. Yamaha was offering a pretty sweet software deal with the 01X.
I really like what I see with the 01X so far. If they phase it out It will still be a good peice of gear. I bought the Yamaha dsp factory when it was hot and it made the difference on my 500mhz I had back then.