Much as I hate to say it, Garmin looks pretty far ahead of the
alternatives
right now. You said it yourself- the G1000 is better than the Avidyne
solution, which invariably includes a pair of GNS-430s anyway. I can
understand Cirrus sticking by Avidyne, but I'm surprised that Piper and
Lancair would choose it, given the options. Is the price differential that
great for a complete system?

Frankly I'd say everyone else is making a lot more mistakes than Garmin.
Avidyne's system requires them to purchase $15k of boxes from their only
competitor and King will soon be in the buggy-whip business unless they
buy
out Avidyne or come up with a competing system. They still barely have a
good answer to the GNS-430, and that's been out for how many years?

I'll tell you what, Garmin is set to own the avionics business in the
sub-12,500lb segment. Their real advantage will be the volume they get in
the very light jet segment, where the G1000 likely beats the bag out of
Collins, etc. in terms of price. Pretty amazing when you think about the
same basic flight deck going into a 172 as a Mustang. Some "mistake."

-cwk.



You are listing their successes and saying they are not making any mistakes.
That doesn't hold any water. The mistakes they make today could easily be
their downfall in the future, and the big one is pride.

They were late on the G1000 and have been late on almost everything else
recently, yet you would not know it from the way they act as a company.
Frankly, if you meet with them for very long, you will find they pretty much
all think their excrement doesn't smell bad. The attitude is that Garmin is
God's gift to GA. I have seen plenty of companies the size of Garmin get
smacked upside the head for having that attitude at this stage of the game.

I have heard plenty of complaints from their customers not being happy with
the level of support or even the attitude they get when they call. OTOH, I
do still hear positive comments about the same things. The problem is that
when you PO an owner, he may never give you the chance to P him O again.

Old Gar and Min better figure out a way to feed those kids humble pie this
christmas and get them back on the ball. Otherwise, a couple other guys who
no one ever heard of may "own" this business in ten or twelve years.

Just because Cessna has gotten away with aggravating everyone in the
business doesn't mean they can get away with it.