although no official word has come down on this topic, it seems that the original Q may be discontinued soon - the best evidence being that (as far as I can tell) it is not listed as a current model on the Pentax Japan website:
PENTAX RICOH IMAGING
perhaps someone out there who can read Japanese can help us out on that, however that's how it looks to me (it is on the Pentax Japan web store, though)
It was probably nearing the end of it's product life anyway, but I wonder if anyone asked this question at Photokina. Was the original on display there?
does anyone out there know anything definite? I was thinking of getting a second Q body, so perhaps they'll be clearing the Qs out soon...