At the past couple York/TCA Museum presentations, Jack Lynch has talked excitedly about the Bluetooth technology and how eventually they would bring it to O gauge after doing HO. But while Bachmann was waiting and planning to bring it to their O gauge line, Lionel is already doing it. So that takes the wind out of the sails, so-to-speak, as far as an advancement for Williams, as Jack has certainly made mention of.
Aside from that, and what others like GregR and Ray said, there is a great deal we DON'T know and can only speculate on.
There are also some NEW figure sets in the new catalog in addition to the before mentioned new products. Their figure sets are nice and I would imagine, sell pretty well. But as far as locomotives and rolling stock, much of what is shown in O gauge, has been available for at least a couple years... some products even longer.
So if there have not been multiple production runs of those products, and the products shown in the catalog are still unsold inventory from the initial production run, well... right there's your answer. Any company needs a healthy cash flow, meaning product made has to move out the door and be purchased.
The fact that the catalog has a lot of HO product says, that part of their market is strong. Product is selling and therefore more product can be justified. At the last YORK/TCA Museum presentation, Jack spent most of the time talking about product in other scales. Maybe the market for WBB is truly soft and does not justify new product? They did do the new 44 ton switcher, but maybe sales on that have been disappointing? With a single production run, they certainly have not recovered their investment costs on that loco yet.
For years, we the market have said we wanted a scale 44 ton switcher. WBB spent the money and made one. If the sales have been sluggish (?) that would seem to send a message to pack in your losses and not make anything else. Scott Mann has made mention of what is probably common knowledge to all the various train makers: What people "say" they want, and what they are willing to spend their money on, are many times two different scenarios.
The general rule of thumb in business is that if sales are good, you continue to invest, make even more product and capitalize on that. If sales are NOT good, then you pull pack, don't make as much and consider your future options. I don't know for certain, but it appears from an outsider looking in, that is what WBB is doing right now.
