Any reason why APAC is still under 8.6?

Expect another 6 months before APAC getting the latest update. 

aksasin said:

Just cant understand why descent is too far behind on schedule..

It is because the APAC models, due to patent and export limitations, are not identical to the ROW models. There are differences not only in the supported language texts that need to be translated first, but also differences in the hardware and software components. That means that these models are handled as completely different devices. Before the firmware upgrade, the modifications of the apac-specific components, the translations, the testing, and all the certification work has to be done first. And of course, being a diving watch, the process is much longer than at ordinary models. Likely they are also the subject of certifications by authorities, which may be often quite lengthy too.

... my advice is - as long as you do not need to have the watch in your local language, do not need some of the localized features (does it support the Japanese GPS - QZSS perhaps?), and can live with the English version (or with another language available on the ROW models), then avoid APAC devices.

I can't agree as a software developer and a project manger. While it does add quite a bit of translation and some additional testings, there is no excuses for the months-long drags and dividing the firmware into multiple versions for languages. It just tells you where the priority of Garmin is focused on and how bad their methodology is.

OSes for phones or computers are thousands times more complicated and each runs on hundreds of different hardwares. They support dozens of localizations and languages. Some languages even get support of multiple regional sub-dialects as well, like English US, English UK, English Australia and so on. To top that off, they support millions of third party apps out there. Yet every single one of them releases all supported languages in a single release.

You may cry unfair that I am comparing multi-trillion conglomerates to the little Garmin. No! Many open source OSes are backed by nonprofit hobbyists. The people are just kind enough to donate their free time, effort and resources to the projects.

On the other hand, a hardware vendor who makes profit from its hardware, cannot even support a dozen languages in a firmware. Each firmware supports only a couple models with minor variations. The said hardware has limited functions compared to phones and computers. And the vendor does not care about compatibility of third party addons between firmwares either. They take months to translate 3 languages. For the same duration, a major update and several minor updates are released on other platforms.

While I enjoy Descent enough to bought Mk2i after I have bought Mk1, I can't say I am not disappointed on their priority and development methodology. These issues should have been sorted a decade ago.

I wish Apple Watch Ultra is a wake up call to Garmin. Sure, there will be a lot of rough edges on the first version. But at a price well below Descent, imperfections are much easier to swallow. It will likely surpass or at least on par with a Descent as a diving computer on a second or third iteration. Moreover the pace of Apple Watch firmware updates are several minor a year and a major update annually. Better yet, Apple releases all supported languages simultaneously, not months apart.

I agree with you that it should not be taking months for translation and testing on an already tested firmware to be released. Especially when some of these updates might be critical fixes that affects safety.

I believe once the Apple Watch Ultra adds AI, the use case for Garmin Descent will no longer be there when there's something better and cheaper.