Hypothesis:
I think it is a means of "testing the waters".
This thread was likely started after receiving some "leads" by their R&D department for a possible product in order to generate and gauge consumer interest. This project is obviously taking longer than anticipated, and so it gets bumped every now and again as an attempt to maintain interest.
I think a lot of companies post threads about a product that's "coming soon" before they throw down bills to have it produced. It generates and gauges interest before the product is released.
As for the products that only last a few days in the IC, I think that has a lot to do with funding and how well they think the product is going to sell. Outside of their website, it's not actually you (the consumer) they are trying to sell their products to, it's the merchants. In the case where the merchants aren't being sold on something, a short run can be implemented and make a few quick bucks, and use the money earned to put back into future products. I'm sure there are other possible scenarios, but this seems like it would be common.