If I own navionics gold and update to navionics plus does that mean I can download lakes as well as marine or is it still limited to marine?  I would obviously rather spend the $99 on a upgrade that $175 on hotmaps platinum if possible.

Yes, Navionics+ can do the inland lakes and Gold coverage.

You choose what areas to download to the card from anywhere in the country up to 2GB of data.

That would be a wise choice.

I gives you the Sonar Charts program also.

Thats pretty awesome.  So basically navionics + just made separate marine and lakes obsolete.  It probably makes hotmaps obsolete too if the new region is the entire USA right?  So does the update card become the one that is used in the graph?  That would mean I could keep my gold chip safe at home as a backup and if something happens to the new card I would just be out the $99 to buy the update card again?  Sonarcharts is exactly what I am after, just grabbed a 798ci hd si on the GM deal and trying to make sure I get the best chip for it. 

Yes, Navionics is making the move to non preloaded chips and in the near future will be selling only chips like the navionics + and update.  You would use your new update chip in the unit and that would be the chip that you put into the computer for the years worth of freshest updates.  The old chip will still be able to be used but it will not contain any of the sonarcharts on it just the new chip will have those features.  Just when you load the card up make sure you take the community edits option off because Humminbird does not support that option and it will only take up space. 

Thats pretty awesome.  So basically navionics + just made separate marine and lakes obsolete.  It probably makes hotmaps obsolete too if the new region is the entire USA right?  So does the update card become the one that is used in the graph?  That would mean I could keep my gold chip safe at home as a backup and if something happens to the new card I would just be out the $99 to buy the update card again?  Sonarcharts is exactly what I am after, just grabbed a 798ci hd si on the GM deal and trying to make sure I get the best chip for it. 

You can't get the whole country on the Navionics+ card, the limit is 2GB of data.

It is just not regional specific like the Hotmaps Platinum and Hotmaps Premium editons are.

 

An example of data size is the 2009 Hotmaps Premium edition is on a 1 GB card. That is 20 states for the East region. The Sonar Charts you add will take up space too as well as Freshest Data updates.

Gotcha.  Can you change your 2gb or once it is downloaded, you can't erase it?  Based on the HMP East comparison though, that is still a lot of data even if you can't change it.

Gotcha.  Can you change your 2gb or once it is downloaded, you can't erase it?  Based on the HMP East comparison though, that is still a lot of data even if you can't change it.

No, you cannot delete data yet.

 

Watch the video on the Navionics web site to learn how to select areas to download so you don't make a mistake and put stuff you don't want or need on the card. There is no limit of how many times you can add data.

The limit is the card capacity.

You get a year of updates with your purchase.