My new
B&G VHF has a nice wireless
remote mic. I think I like it better than the Uniden WHAM, which I also have and use frequently. The WHAM seems to have more of a delay, and the range is not quite as good. The
B&G wireless sports more options; a virtually complete duplicate of the front of the
radio itself, with all menus, plus intercom.
That said, I agree that the life cycle of
marine electronics is absurd. Just two years ago I bought an expensive
Garmin multi-function display, and installed the latest firmware upgrade. There hasn't been an upgrade since. That model is in the "legacy" section of their site, along with that whole model line and the line that followed it the next year. They're not actively updating or producing bug fixes for either line.
Sorry, I just don't believe that there's been no bugs found or good ideas for improvements since then. And if the developers are stretched that thin, what does that say about the quality of the code they're churning out for today's units (which will themselves be obsolete and unsupported tomorrow)?
The prices and features keep going up, but the quality of the
software goes down. I have two devices that issue
AIS alarms because they're not smart enough to recognize that the MMSI number from my
AIS transmitter matches their internal "own ship" MMSI number, so they think I'm about to collide with myself. Both Manufacturers (one is the
Garmin, above) have confirmed it's a known problem, but have no plans to fix it. Presumably they're all too busy coding for next year's model.