The problem I suspect they are going to face going forward in the design of the halfling and gnome is that they don't have a "new" design option for wee folk yet.
With the exception of the AD&D 'hobbit'... every other version of the gnome and halfling has kind of been a small version of the human, elf or dwarf. AD&D gnomes were very dwarf-like in their big flat noses and long beards... 3&4E halflings were basically humans at half size... 4E gnomes became half-sized fey elves... and this current iteration of the halfling seems to be heading in 3E gnome territory (minus the facial hair)... which seemed like a merging of elf and dwarf together.
At least the 'hobbit' halfling was its own iconic image... short, roly-poly, curly hair, barefoot. It was not a miniature version of any of the 'big three'. The question becomes then... if you don't use that image... and you keep the gnome in 3E territory (in that middle state between elf and dwarf where it's thin and lithe like an elf, but retains the facial hair and kind of rugged look of the dwarf)... where do you take the halfling?
It seems as though, if Jon's column is any indication... that they'd prefer to keep the halfling as part of the 'big four', and as a result steal much of the iconography of the gnome for itself. But if that happens... you have only a couple choices with the gnome-- either ditch it as a main player race altogether or go back to the "garden gnome" style of AD&D. But I suspect that version of the gnome is not particularly popular and a rather unmodern image.