Topic: 2012 1198c Si news?

[Fisher13]

Does anyone know the differences and upgrades that will be made available on the 2012 1198C SI? Also, release date? I'm really anxious to get one now but I'll wait if it's worth waiting for.
Thanks!

[Bob B]

Don't think there will be any hardware updates for the 1198 in 2012.  Updates will be software, so you could buy at any time and just update the software when it comes out.

A big advance for 2012 is going to be the ethernet hub.  This allows multiple units to be interconnected as well as more external devices such as radar, nema 2000 devices, etc.

[Humminbird_Greg]

What Bob B said!

[sonar2000]

I would go ahead and get the 1198. Dont really see any new units coming out but software upgrades for what we have. Compatable stuff for ethernet.  multi unit hookup to include other equipment...
Enhancement stuff..
Chuck

[Humminbird_Greg]

Normally new units for the next year model (in this case 2012) are announced at the ICAST show many months ago.  Our model year starts in October so you should have heard if there was a new version of the 1198 unit by now as we would have wanted to sell it for Christmas.

So any 1198c Si unit you buy now will have the same features and functions as any other as long as you keep the software up to date.

[ITGEEK]

The only thing I'd check on before I bought now, is if the internal maps could possibly
be updated next year.
If you are going to buy map cards, then it won't matter that much.
But, if you are not going to buy them, it could matter a heck of a lot.

Good luck with your purchase.

[Humminbird_Greg]

I have not heard that we will be updating any internal maps in any of our units.  If we did they would have been built this way since the beginning of our model year.

[ITGEEK]

So Greg,
If I understand correctly.

From October 1st of the previous year, through September 30 of next year or model year,
there are no hardware/map updates done to any new unit?

Thanks.

[Humminbird_Greg]

Normally no there are no hardware or map updates made during the model year – unless there is some forced reason to do so.  Something like the map vendor is late getting the map data to us, a mandatory hardware change due to a shortage or unavailability,.. things like that.

Some of the timing for this is dependant on which product it is versus the load our Engineering and Manufacturing folks have on them.  For years where we make changes to many models, some products will not be available until later on in the model year (I believe that the larger models are normally not available until around the first of the calendar year when this happens) – but this is by no means a hard and fast rule here.  The unit’s availability is planned out but if we hit an unexpected bump in the road the release of the product could get delayed.