If I were a firearms retailer and if ammunition actually were to become available in any quantity, I think I'd be a little frustrated at the variety of chamberings anymore and the shelf space I'd need to accommodate them.
How many ways to we need to skin a cat? Let's take the .300 Magnums. In years past, the .300 H&H, .300 Win Mag, and .300 Wby were plenty enough to get the job done. Okay, so we want something similar, but to cycle through a short action. Here come the short and compact magnums. But we want something more, so here come the ultra magnums. And yet, the three originals in the class are no less capable of getting the job done - and the newcomers really no more capable of getting the job done.
I can't imagine that these kinds of ventures come cheaply to the manufacturers we depend upon for rifles or for ammunition and components? Here's Hornady with this new concept called the .17HMR. Gotta make the cartridge work, but also need to find manufacturers who'll take it on to make it commercially viable. Look at Remington and a NUMBER of cartridges they've come up with that never really captured our fancy: 6mm Rem (which I really do like, try finding a rifle though), 6.5 Mag, .350 Mag, 8mm Mag, .416 Mag... Sometimes I wish the manufacturers would put their R&D money into revolutionary developments (think of the leaps that were possible when smokeless propellants were introduced?). We have optics manufacturers playing digital now. Remington was probably the last I recall to experiment with anything technologically different in the failed "ETronix" line.
What niche does a cartridge like the .17 WSSM fill? Performs better than a .22 WMR maybe? The .22 Hornet's always done that, and it's not exactly common enough to say that there's a viable market niche for it since the .223 came out. So, is Winchester vying for sales in a segment where there really aren't that many sales needed? I know. "Need." I have 12 different calibers in my ammo locker myself. How many do I "need"? I could cover the continent and my defensive needs extremely well with only four of them. My wife questions me all the time, "why"? I point to her shoe closet. There are similarities in our logic. She has be beat by a long shot there, though.
And maybe that's what Winchester's banking on here? We won't "need" one, but we'll be curious enough to go out and buy one anyway. Whatever happened to the .17HM2? I think there's great risk that we're going to have too many choices in the .17s where there really is no market to sustain any of them. When's Remington coming out with a .17? Oh, that's right, they did years ago - the .17 Remington (circa 1971?). That's been a big seller for them, hasn't it? So much that we now also have the .17 Fireball? Truthfully, if I wanted a .17 that did more than the other .17s, I'd look at the Fireball.
Again though, how many different ways do we need to skin the same cat?