I was waiting for at least 200 supporting answers on the speed matter.
Let me analyze this a little.
We need maxwell to speed up the proccess even before rendering. That means 3 major steps.
1. Fully working and fully capable plugin for all supported apps. Also, go on with new plugins, especially for software like Acad with millions of users (customers).
2. Quick material converter for all kinds of material. Support for well known material types of other renderers (Vray, Mental Ray etc)
You may ask why does NL have to do this since nobodyelse has but this is not true, check Vray, it has a scene converter and a material converter with just a right click of the mouse. Also, we are about to have the best renderer ever, so why not having this?
3. I use MAX so I see that thousands of models of misc companies are coming with standard or Vray materials. Nothing for Maxwell. Also apps like Vray can even render standard materials just with less quality. Maxwell is a complete other thing, if it is not Maxwell-compatible it simply doesn't work (material, light, etc). So, I think that NL should try to make some deals with misc companies for products like evermotion archmodels to be maxwell-ready. This would be a great advertisement for Maxwell also. I know that maxwell is a new product, I just wanted to suggest that because I find it important. If models are expensive, then 2-3 CDs with materials and textures would be nice.
What I mean with all the above, is that speeding the rendering engine is not 100% what we need.