I'm guessing them 7610 is not going anywhere for some time.
Correct. There are not enough hams in the market to fund a development/production cycle every year.
If you look at the number of years between HF rig introductions by Icom, or Kenwood, or Yaesu, it ranges
from 3 to 6 years per new HF rig.
Samsung can design and sell a new phone every year, since they sell a minimum of 50 to 100 million units,
which nicely covers profit and R&D for the next phone. But there are only 750,000 licensed hams in the USA.
And of course these radios are sold internationally, BUT, for example, of the 750,000 hams in the USA, how many
do you think are VHF/EMCOMM only, and how many do you think are ACTIVE on HF, and have the retirement budget
to purchase a new $2500+ radio each time one is introduced? You begin to see that a manufacturer might be
LUCKY to sell 20,000 radios. So the product cycle for HF radios will spread out by multiple years.
Notice, for example, that AT the price band and feature set of the Icom 7300, there has not been a new model
introduced since 2016 (5 years). I would expect the Icom 7610, in it's price and feature band, to also last
at least that long.
Additionally, notice that performance for ALL the HF radios currently on the market has MORE than enough
sensitivity and digital features (LAN, USB, CIV, Sound Card, accessory socket) than you could ever need,
but the sunspot cycle is on the upswing. So it could be argued that there is really no need for a new or
better HF rig in the next several years, since your current one is going to "seem" better each year now
until the next solar maximum.
The current models by Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, Elecraft, Flex, all have enough features, sensitivity, and
selectivity to do a fine job. Bring on the sunspots.
Neal