Forget about "trade in". I would never trade any of my scanners in.
What should be discussed here is, what will Whistler do to build a receiver that can keep up with todays technology. And i am not talking blue tooth, gps or any crap like that. Technology changes fast now a days. At the moment, as far as their scanners go, they are falling behind. I am a HUGE GRE fan. So i hope they get it together soon because that new Uniden scanner looks pretty sharp and as of right now, there is no rival to it.
Ford vs. Chevy... falling behind, etc.
I just bought a new car and I cannot believe that car sales these days are focused on cell phones and Internet capabilities, USB ports, and other electronics. I'm only saying this because I buy a car to drive - not to surf the Internet. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying that's not what I'm looking at in a car. I'm looking at fuel efficiency, space, ride, etc. My point is we all have different desires and/or needs in a scanner. Me? I want one that receives and works on the systems and activity I want to "hear". It's not (for me) about what the radio "looks" like, etc.
These same things were said when GRE released Phase 2 capability and Uniden was "behind". Now the shoe is on the other foot - and even more so given Whistler hasn't released anything yet.
Let's not write Whistler off - they just got into the business. I suspect their first steps are getting existing former GRE radios back into production. Then, perhaps we might see some firmware updates/improvements to those models - and then newer models (maybe already being worked?)
I too would hope to see support for the newer GRE models (PSR800, etc.) but I suspect the reason for the "trade-in" offer might be an indication that they won't (but time will tell).
As far as "new" models -- look how long Uniden worked on a new radio that would do Phase 2 while GRE had one on the street. The entire time people talked about Uniden falling behind and now that they've released a new series of radios, Whistler is "falling behind".
We're never going to see the exact same capabilities released by any two vendors at exactly the same time - never have, never will. But we should be incredibly happy that we are likely to have choices (between at least two vendors) in the very near future and two vendors that will continue to compete for your business with features and capabilities the "other guy" doesn't have. Six months ago we only had one potential choice! As with anything, it will come down to preference - and users will buy what they want based on many things but mostly on what they need (we don't all need EDACS, LTR, Phase 2, NXDN, etc.).
And in the end, there will be features/capabilities that neither vendor provides... and all we can do is suggest/ask/request....
