Plextor is planning on releasing the new burner. Here is the article. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=763
Impressive speeds, for sure, though I'd like to see a few reviews before I bought it. No Lightscribe, either. Unless this comes out really soon, I still think I'll buy the Lite-On SHM-165H6S when I can find it.
It seems Lite-On is following suit. They're releasing an 18x -/+R burner sometime in the third quarter. I'd think they should focus instead on trying to make their most up-to-date currently released drives more available than they seem to be right now, in some countries. http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=16318