The panel didn't go into great detail, but it was noted that the hardware issue was (as I understood it) more related to capacity, in that somebody who has 1500 AAC songs on their iPod with plenty more room to add more, that at higher resolution might only be able to get 100-200 songs onto their device before it was completely "full".So although Apple will gladly take your 24/96 file into their MFiT program today, they will move very slowly in sticking those kinds of files onto the existing devices of what are largely uninformed consumers.The backlash from millions of folks who suddenly have their device filled up at one or two hundred songs could presumably make the current "Maps" fiasco look tame.......at least that's how I understood the primary focus of hardware concerns.In a nutshell, the storage appliance on your iDevice is fixed, and Apple has to plan and work with what the hundred million (or whatever the number is) current users of iDevices out there......there is invariably more to the discussion from Apples perspective, but that was the extent these folks were willing to go essentially speaking for Apple and their future plans. Although Apple apparently indicated some hardware concerns, l they also didn't tip any specific details as to their upcoming endeavors (and if they did, nobody on the panel felt comfortable sharing with the AES audience).I think a lot of folks in the engineering field aren't really buying the high resolution/long download story. For lots of reasons, bandwidth today is much cheaper and more readily available than even a year or two ago. I got the impression that even the panel (Bob, Bob, and Eric) didn't really buy into the bandwidth argument as one that held a lot of water when explaining why high resolution files aren't available on iTunes today (and of course they have been, and are available on the high resolution distributors web sites for a while now).I got the distinct message at AES this year that Apple isn't really interested in catering to the lowest common denominator any longer. Apple is a business, they move very slowly, and one is naturally suspicious of their marketing language and their presumably good intentions.But a surprisingly large group of AES panel types who spoke about iTunes seemed to think that there was a grass roots move afoot to raise the bar sonically across the board.The use of Soundcheck to kill the loudness wars once and for all (thus add to the "sonic wellness" we're apparently headed for) entered into more than a few discussions at AES, but I'll leave that one for somebody else to open the floor with.....it was a hot button topic for folks like Frank Fillipetti, who likened it (somewhat light heartedly) to Dictatorships and Death Panels trying to tell engineers what to do with their musicI think that one of the things that makes all of this somewhat difficult to predict is that Apple, as the worlds largest distributor of music, has historically refrained entirely from sharing any information with the public on their future plans, and shares in only a very limited fashion with audio professionals (as seen by their visiting a few L.A. studios while developing MFiT, as well as involving Eric and Bob Ludwig in the process)......Apple has operated largely in silence up until now, only recently expressing their apparent desire toin terms of the resolution and resulting sonic quality of the music they sell and distribute.