With the MX4 officially confirmed by NI (In this comment among other places) I thought it might be fun to speculate on what we think will be included in the feature set, and what we hope we'll see (acknowledging that it's almost surely too late to influence the product at this stage). Here's what I think it'll be:
I suspect we're going to see something that's almost identical to the MX2 but with four channel faders, deck switches, and slightly higher end I/O including XLR main outs and some form of booth out. I think it will be more like the jump from the S2 to the S3 than the S2 to the S4. I expect it will have a simple line in like on the S3. Price-wise, I'm guessing $699-$749 USD. That's what I think we'll see, and I think it would be a pretty solid entry but it wouldn't be exactly what I'm hoping for.
What I hope for, is that it sits somewhere between the S3 and the S4 in terms of functionality. No motorized jog wheels—I think that's already confirmed, and I think it's probably a good move from a price standpoint but I know people who like them really like them. I'd love to see high res color displays like the S4. In a dream world it would be two larger displays like on the S5 or even a single 7-10" display in the center but I think those scenarios are very unlikely. I'd love for it to include two separate mic/line input sections so that you could route two external sound sources to decks C & D. With small screens and multiple input sources, I'd expect the price to hit somewhere around $899. With larger screens or a single central screen, $999-$1099.
What do you think we'll see?
