to the Kirby fans, I'm sorry for the joke about the Riccar Supralite being the new Kirby. Certainly the Supralite is a modern direct air machine that cleans well. However, it doesn't have height adjustment, and it cannot be converted to canister mode, or run tools like a shampooer, so it could never be a Kirby.
After seeing the pics of the new Kirby, it's obvious that there are limits to how much you can change a Kirby and still have it be a Kirby. I don't think anyone would be happy with a Kirby version of the Royal Powercast. Perhaps someday they'll figure out how to add an optional bagless attachment. Would certainly be handy for the demos.