Why APAC users are less important to Garmin?

Yes. There’s still APAC model. I emailed Garmin and provided them my device Serial and was told that it’s under APAC.

This isn't on Garmin.

APAC countries impose certain limitations on tech. I don't have the list handy but I vaguely recall reading something about BLE/ANT+ radios or sensor functions. Like, they COULD just accept the standards the rest of the world uses but instead force manufacturers to offer slightly nerfed hardware for the APAC region.

Garmin does what they can with that but it's a smaller market so they're not going to pour resources into those updates, hence the delays - they offer APAC devices a stable, if slightly older, firmware sometime after it's been available for ROW.

Then I guess we all have to continue complaining bitterly until they do put in sufficient effort to keep software on par.  There wasn’t a big warning displayed on the product page when making my purchase.  I would have bought via another country had I known.

I agree - should come with a big warning on the box. it is really frustrating to look at the changelogs of bugs being fixed, but not for Asians... 

No any limitations are imposed for APAC region by other manufacturers like Apple and Wahoo. They release the same software globally at the same time.

Hi, has the 17.26 been released to APAC users yet? Not a rant, just want the ETA. I hope there is an official annoucement like the non-APAC version.

Not yet the release notes for Japan are here:

www.garmin.co.jp/.../