FT817 replacement at last?

It may be on its way, late, but on its way at last:

K3NG reported on www.amateurradio.com on his visit to Dayton:

"Yaesu did not announce an FT-817 replacement, which salespeople in the booth sheepishly acknowledged."

I wonder if they plan to launch this by Christmas? I expect it will push C4FM. As Yaesu has missed the last solar peak, I wonder if this one will include 1296MHz and omit the lower HF bands? One covering all bands from 12m-23cms with auto-ATU on HF would be good. I have already said the features I'd expect in earlier blog posts.

Yaesu and that (never coming) FT817 replacement

Yaesu amaze me. They would have a near certain HUGE market for a more up-to-date version of the FT817. We punters have been waiting YEARS and it has still not appeared.

Instead they mess about with VHF/UHF digital radios. They could probably re-use the FT817 mechanics and just update the insides. The FT817 is a good radio, but it is 14 years old and there are many features it could do with. The FT817 and FT817ND must have sold over 500000 worldwide! The window for releasing a new version is rapidly closing as the sunspots fade.

My wishlist (just some features, no particular order)

• LiIon battery pack
• Auto ATU
• Speech processor
• OLED display
• DSP noise reduction 
• 70MHz
• 1296MHz

None of these should be hard (or expensive) for Yaesu to develop. So just why have they not done this?