ledow
Member
I think that talk of the GP2X's death is greatly exaggerated. 
A lot of people don't know about the Pandora (which is a British-made item as far as I know, whereas the GP2X is Korean-made for a primarily Eastern and US market). So most GP2X users won't see the Pandora for a long while, and if they do, they'll be "importing" it from Britain. Import consoles never quite sell as well as native. Chances are there are at least ten handheld consoles that nobody over here has ever heard of that sell better in Japan/China and are more likely to make the GP2X obsolete, than the Pandora.
Then you have the ease of developing for the GP2X, which means that it's just as easy to recompile and keep seperate GP2X and Pandora versions of the same codebase (hopefully). So the software isn't going to die any time soon. I intend to release my own stuff primarily for the GP2X but with the possibility of a Pandora port if/when I buy one, but that will most likely be a recompile of the GP2X code with a couple of #define's to take care of Pandora peculiarities, not "re-built from the ground up". I think a lot of software developers will want to do the same (but obviously a lot of things will be Pandora-only too). The point of the GP2X was, after all, that a lot of existing software could be easily ported to it.
The Pandora price is quite prohibitive too, although it is in a bit of a niche market. I had to wait a long time until I could afford for the wife to buy me a GP2X for Christmas - and even then it was the "big" present (and, I have to say, one of the best I've had in terms of play value). I don't see my just buying a Pandora on a whim, I'll have to either save up especially or wait for a windfall.
It's going to take a long while for Pandora sales/supply to gear up, a lot of software to be written for it, problems to be solved etc. and only the "I'll have BETA version 0.0001" crowd are going to be using it until the software library increases.
I reckon there will be Pandora's on eBay within weeks of release because people bought them on their own hype, didn't like that there was little software at release, and then re-sold them because they just see it as "another console". That's how I got my GP2X F-100 six months ago - it was second-hand but had hardly even been used. It was a Value Pack one that came with the only other SD card that the owner had ever used with it which had precisely two games on it (they were crap, so I deleted them), a single MP3 and a tech demo from the archive. There wasn't ANYTHING else on it, they'd never loaded up an emulator or any of the "big" games (hadn't even bought Payback or anything), and the eBay auction said that he was "bored" of it. But he'd bought the TV-cable, the power supply, the Value Pack, SD cards, etc. It still had the original GP2X batteries in it and they held full-charge, which suggests he turned it on about half-a-dozen times.
I'd personally give the GP2X at least 18 months to 2 years after the Pandora is properly, officially released before the GP2X becomes "obsolete" and people don't want to develop for it any more. Don't forget - even GPH are still developing for it and releasing firmware, which says a lot about their market in the countries near them - it's still cost-effective for them to spend developer/artist time on developing new firmware.
I can also easily see a "GP2X sequel" that may even be backward-compatible coming from GPH itself and extending the lifetime (don't forget, Pandora is a SEPERATE project from a completely different company). This is kind-of what happened with the F-200, for instance. Adding a touchscreen and changing the colour extended the product lifetime by a LONG time. And GPH are still trading, still selling, in countries on the other side of the world to where the company is based.
The GP2X isn't going anywhere for a long time yet. And the most important part to remember is that it'll never "die" because you'll always be able to write new software for it yourself. Anyone with C and SDL knowledge can port to it. More likely, in a few years, it'll be perceived as a bit slow and old and people will stop using it for that reason, not because software/firmware hasn't been released, or that there's a replacement niche console.
Personally, I'm not letting go of my GP2X without a fight. It's a great machine, it's what I've been waiting years for - a console that I can program for easily, that I can control every aspect of, that's powerful enough to do (and emulate) most things and portable enough to actually carry around. I can see my GP2X still being used for three, four years and even when it's been put in a cupboard, I'll be bringing it out every now and again to play my old games.
A lot of people don't know about the Pandora (which is a British-made item as far as I know, whereas the GP2X is Korean-made for a primarily Eastern and US market). So most GP2X users won't see the Pandora for a long while, and if they do, they'll be "importing" it from Britain. Import consoles never quite sell as well as native. Chances are there are at least ten handheld consoles that nobody over here has ever heard of that sell better in Japan/China and are more likely to make the GP2X obsolete, than the Pandora.
Then you have the ease of developing for the GP2X, which means that it's just as easy to recompile and keep seperate GP2X and Pandora versions of the same codebase (hopefully). So the software isn't going to die any time soon. I intend to release my own stuff primarily for the GP2X but with the possibility of a Pandora port if/when I buy one, but that will most likely be a recompile of the GP2X code with a couple of #define's to take care of Pandora peculiarities, not "re-built from the ground up". I think a lot of software developers will want to do the same (but obviously a lot of things will be Pandora-only too). The point of the GP2X was, after all, that a lot of existing software could be easily ported to it.
The Pandora price is quite prohibitive too, although it is in a bit of a niche market. I had to wait a long time until I could afford for the wife to buy me a GP2X for Christmas - and even then it was the "big" present (and, I have to say, one of the best I've had in terms of play value). I don't see my just buying a Pandora on a whim, I'll have to either save up especially or wait for a windfall.
It's going to take a long while for Pandora sales/supply to gear up, a lot of software to be written for it, problems to be solved etc. and only the "I'll have BETA version 0.0001" crowd are going to be using it until the software library increases.
I reckon there will be Pandora's on eBay within weeks of release because people bought them on their own hype, didn't like that there was little software at release, and then re-sold them because they just see it as "another console". That's how I got my GP2X F-100 six months ago - it was second-hand but had hardly even been used. It was a Value Pack one that came with the only other SD card that the owner had ever used with it which had precisely two games on it (they were crap, so I deleted them), a single MP3 and a tech demo from the archive. There wasn't ANYTHING else on it, they'd never loaded up an emulator or any of the "big" games (hadn't even bought Payback or anything), and the eBay auction said that he was "bored" of it. But he'd bought the TV-cable, the power supply, the Value Pack, SD cards, etc. It still had the original GP2X batteries in it and they held full-charge, which suggests he turned it on about half-a-dozen times.
I'd personally give the GP2X at least 18 months to 2 years after the Pandora is properly, officially released before the GP2X becomes "obsolete" and people don't want to develop for it any more. Don't forget - even GPH are still developing for it and releasing firmware, which says a lot about their market in the countries near them - it's still cost-effective for them to spend developer/artist time on developing new firmware.
I can also easily see a "GP2X sequel" that may even be backward-compatible coming from GPH itself and extending the lifetime (don't forget, Pandora is a SEPERATE project from a completely different company). This is kind-of what happened with the F-200, for instance. Adding a touchscreen and changing the colour extended the product lifetime by a LONG time. And GPH are still trading, still selling, in countries on the other side of the world to where the company is based.
The GP2X isn't going anywhere for a long time yet. And the most important part to remember is that it'll never "die" because you'll always be able to write new software for it yourself. Anyone with C and SDL knowledge can port to it. More likely, in a few years, it'll be perceived as a bit slow and old and people will stop using it for that reason, not because software/firmware hasn't been released, or that there's a replacement niche console.
Personally, I'm not letting go of my GP2X without a fight. It's a great machine, it's what I've been waiting years for - a console that I can program for easily, that I can control every aspect of, that's powerful enough to do (and emulate) most things and portable enough to actually carry around. I can see my GP2X still being used for three, four years and even when it's been put in a cupboard, I'll be bringing it out every now and again to play my old games.
