In both cases, it's not too soon for a statement of intent.
If they're going to have an open license (especially if it's not an existing license), then there's a very slow process involving legal. If they're going to have some sort of electronic tools, those tools will take a long time to develop. In both cases, they're long processes - they should be getting started.
I am sure that they have already started. And, from a tweet I saw zip through my feed yesterday, I do know that Greg Leeds has said that they want to get out some sort of digital tool set for Next, but that it is way, way too early for them to state anything beyond that.
Latest estimate I saw was just over 70k, giving $8.4Mish per year. Which, for a company the size of Hasbro may well not worth bothering with.
For Hasbro, maybe not. But for WotC, as something that can be used to meet this mystical $50M a year that gets thrown about, it may be very significant. In addition, it is money that is predictable. They can get a guaranteed amount of money each month from it by looking at the subscriptions. Splatbooks are much more fuzzy and require guesses.
It's also important to note the costs associated with DDI. Developing the existing tools was expensive. Maintaining the servers, developing material for the magazines, and applying the errata are all expensive.
There's absolutely no guarantee that DDI has been a profitable venture, taken over the whole of the 4e edition cycle. That being the case, Hasbro may well be hesitant about investing another tens of millions in developing another new set of tools for 5e.
That is true, but the prevalence of smartphones and tablets as compared to when 4E was initially in development make a much stronger argument for developing them.
I'm pretty sure the local RPG retailers would hate that idea as much as record stores hate iTunes. It would pretty much ensure they would stop selling D&D altogether.
Well, the difference is that the DDI app-store would be a place where people could put their D&D Next apps up for download. They could put their 3PPs (adventures, classes, etc) up for sale, etc.