It allows Drop to place a rather large order. Much larger than the usual amount Sennheiser produces. It also guarantees Sennheiser of a certain risk free income when 3000 are sold. 3000 at $ 3.3M which will not be a small order. Sennheiser will probably get at least $2.5M.
This will surely cover development cost and production (tooling is the same, ring is a different color and headphoneband stamp is different.
For the large part the HD800S and HD8XX use the same tooling. Also development has to be paid and Drop is in it to make a living as well.
This is business, nothing else. I think it is great Drop is trying to get an improved version for less than the normal price of a HD800S.
And remember... no one is forced to buy it. People choose to buy ans wait for what's coming.
I definitely agree with you, despite some of my comments of frustration on the shipping time or price, I think it's awesome that people can basically buy into a developing product with an awesome company like Sennheiser. I mean lets be honest, just look at their sales history, even on drop alone, and it's just success after success. HD58X, HD6XX, PC37X, Sennheiser has been making great audio products for a long time now.
The Drop model won't work for all of us, but as you said, we're not forced into anything, we can choose to buy, or we can choose to wait, or buy something else. I like the idea of their engineers taking another look at a high end product and seeing how they can tweak, further improve, or adjust it's design to give us the consumer another option, or an upgrade. It's good for the industry as a whole, and good for headphone nuts like us. More choice or options is never a bad thing in my opinion.
I do quite like the look of the black, silver, and dark blue ring.