But with Alpine and the like, they have new products for you to buy when they put old ones out to rest

Yes they do. But what does that mean for the older units? It doesn't mean anything. It means you're still stuck with an old unit that works for you. And if it breaks and is out of warranty, you get it fixed for a price. Whether you pay Alpine or someone else to fix it.

That sort of sounds like the situation we're in with the empeg. Except, the guys are still working on code. Not to mention third party development. Not to mention, apart from all that, if it does what you want RIGHT NOW, then even if no additional code is produced, it will still do what it's doing a few years from now. Same as any head unit.

Bruno