Gary M. Parsons, XM Satellite Radio's Chairman of the Board, just said at the Bank of America Media, Telecom and Entertainment Conference that the Pionner Inno and Samsung Helix next-gen XM2go players will be on retail shelves in April.

This contradicts earlier reports that the release has been pushed back to May.

UPDATE: From the Q&A session of the BofA webcast - Gary Parsons said he would like to have 100,000 Helix/Inno units shipped by mid-April. He said that XM is currently in the manufacturing stage in multiple factories and wants to have signficant quantities available in the "Dads and Grads" timeframe - ie, Father Day. Manufacturing should not be an inhibitor in getting these to market either. Very encouraging to hear.

One thing to note is that it was brought up that many of the units coming out in April have already been spoken for (many of which by current XM subscribers), so while they'll be hitting the shelves in April - if you haven't preordered one, it may be a bit difficult to get a Helix or Inno right away.