The dmp-x20 was pulled after only 5 months... with no replacement. I think it's highly unlikely they recouped thier investment in such a short time considering it had almost no penetration in the market, as far as I can tell. Through my webpage I've spoken more than a few owners but no one that actually bought the GW player. My review was pretty favorable, but others pegged it as mediocre. Some user reviews at Amazon, Shopping.com, etc indicate there may have been a number of hardware failures but its impossible to guage if thats a fair sampling. There was also the price. Other players out there cost less and offer similiar features, or more, and from brand names that people are more familiar with. Add it up and the DMP-X20 wasn't too compelling. Gateway never offered it for less than $300 which made it the 3rd most expensive (behind Apple and iRiver). Compare that to the 30gb Zen or Dell DJ that you can get for $200, and the Rio Karma at $250. In any event, it was a business decision: either it wasn't profitable enough, or it could have been a money-looser after factoring in returns and support. These things have a higher return rate than flash-based players, even with companies who have more experience at it than eDig/Gateway, like Apple and Creative. IMO manufacturing hasn't matured to point where laptops are at yet they have to be twice as durable; they take more abuse traveling in people's pocket. Anyway, a company like GW that just shut down all its B&M stores, and is focusing on profitablity, probably would not see this as a worthwile endeaver if it's sitting on the shelves, or if the returns and associated support costs are higher than is justified.
just my $.02
AI
