Actually you're right about the price having to go down to the $500 area.
It must be competitive with the PC and Mac markets. I think there are two
major stumbling blocks (3 if you consider the price). One is the (so far)
inability to boot of the HD. Second is the speed. While HD's are faster
than the Amiga floppies, they are nowhere the speeds attainable on other
machines. We have AmigaDOG to thank for that. Maybe that'll change too
with 1.3 – Steve –