Well, somehow we all missed this, but our very own MR has actually seen the new printers (see in the What's New section of LL). I quote -
"Epson has several new printers coming, and showed them to a group of journalists in New York last week, which I attended. These were not supposed to be announced until August 13th – lost of time to write-up a full report.
Well, as happens all too frequently these days, someone at Epson (their UK office, this time) jumped the gun and pre-announced. You can read all about the new printers on PhotographyBlog. (Canon's pre-release specialists are their French subsidiary. What is it with European subs and secrets?)
I may still write something about the new printers, but in the meantime I'll simply add that the new Vivid Megenta ink really does visibly increase colour saturation and dMax, based on sample prints which I was shown.
As to whether it's worth upgrading from a 4800, 7800, 9800 to a 4880, 7880, 9880, I'd have to say no. And as for what's coming next from Epson, I will respect the NDA that I've signed and will have more to say on that next month."
It seems that if MR is saying "don't bother upgrading", then it is pretty certain that the smaller printers do not support live MK/PK swapping, as many of us have already inferred. A strange product upgrade from Epson which seems to ignore the clear challenges in the past year from HP and Canon.
John