Not my area of expertise but in regards to your question about...

Not my area of expertise but in regards to your question about yow trying a standing start without promotion , is there a chance that they are holding off until the product is more readily available ,??
For instance if they do a small rollout with heaps of marketing it might disappoint consumers that the product isn't that available ,
Whereas if they slowly roll out and when the product is more readily available they then hit marketing hard and fast ,,

That's the only reason I can think of and as Humble said if you e mail them and ask them they might give you a response ,either way it would be good to know what their M O is .
Cheers