Thanks for another very educative reply Fox530. It saved me a lot of guessing.
I did some more browsing along your remarks, found few articles and I think I understand what it all came from (my another conspiracy theory).
Basically it took the BMW longer than it should have to realize that they would not win with smartphones. They stopped trying to "re-sell" the internet through the ConnectedDrive/Online services. Then, and only then they started "giving away" the combox without too much fuss, mostly in order not to p***s most of their customers.
I think, I'll go for the combox retrofit anyway. One of the kind forum-ers contacted me with proposition of making the retrofit for me, within not extensively blown out budget, so hopefully towards the end of the year I'll report what is what (for those interested).
To consider properly the value of BMW Assist/ConnectedDrive/Online, I'd have to see it working somehow. I can't see any active options in the ConnectedDrive menu. It currently has got Online and Services Status. Online states "not enabled or account expired" whilst Status shows "Online" and "Activate TeleServices", which is grayed out. I don't know whether emergency calls are working and I'm not going to check.
The only thing which might still be coming from the Online features is the connectivity with Gracenote database during ripping a CD to the internal HDD. It shortly connects (I think - it displays tiny "gracenote" in the top region of the large screen) and brings the album name and all the track names. BTW do you know what is the size of the internal hdd?
So the value for money of the whole BMW Assist/ConnectedDrive/Online in my car, even when it was working, would have been questionable anyway (at least for me).
If I ever decided to retrofit the entire modern NBT iDrive system, it would not have the Assist/ConnectedDrive/Online working anyway, would it?
Do you think that the gracenote functionality would cease operation after retrofitting the combox? Also the CD ripping: would that stop working as well?
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The only firmware you can update over the USB ports in F10's, irrespective of whether they have a Combox or not, is compatibility updates for the bluetooth. It isn't a proper software upgrade and is the only official software updating you can do.
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Is this realized by the "Software Update" option existing in post 09/2010 version of iDrive? Would I be able to run those updates myself after the combox retrofit? Are they still being issued by BMW for modern phones/devices?
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The firmware of the unit itself can officially be updated only by a dealer - it can be done using software and cables at home but it is NOT as straightforward as the sort of regular fiddling many of us might do and is quite complex.
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This is probably the situation when people are talking about car being fully "flashed", and that not working very often for the first time?
Kind regards