I like these so much that we bought them for our new school that opens in three weeks (or at least we’re hoping it is ready!). No kidding...60 tenors and 10 sopranos. I wish they had concert scale instruments. They sell to schools for a significant discount...I think vendor pricing...although the company seems to stick with online sales for the most part, and I can’t really begrudge them for that because it does represent a significant amount of income and the ukuleles are not that expensive to start with.
There is a music store not far from me that still has some Outdoor Ukulele stock from an order when they had started the new tenors but were still selling the old style soprano...and they actually have some of the old sopranos in stock. I don’t recommend them. (I was graciously sent an original outdoor ukulele soprano by a UU member, and I do play it from time to time. It works, but the improvements in the models is amazing).
I agree with you regarding side dots; I just don’t know how they would do it.
The only correction I would make is that they aren’t improving the models as time goes on; they have the molds, and the molds haven’t changed since they introduced the tenor and then the soprano that is basically the tenor in a smaller size. What you see is what you get, unless the whole mold is recreated. They have switched the company that creates the plastic materials that go into the mold since mine was made (I bought mine from that local dealer), and they have that new polycarbonate laced with carbon fiber. But the mold is the mold.
Thankfully, the set-up on these is perfect.
I inquired about a concert model, and I believe that they told me that it cost about $100,000 to design, test, and create the molds for a new model, and that there are no plans to make a concert at this time.