On Monday, November 2, 2015 at 8:19:11 AM UTC-8, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
On Monday, November 2, 2015 at 2:08:37 AM UTC-8, krasw wrote:
... I would not invest several thousands to computer with a hope that manufacturer will keep the software up-to-date for decades.

With all due respect, Isn't that what anyone does who purchases a ClearNav, LxNav, LxNavagation, Butterfly, Ilec... We pay thousands and the manufactures do keep developing better and faster software/hardware. Just like in our daily use computers, phones...

I had been out of gliding for 13 or so years and was very impressed with the new instruments, the big screens, electronic TE, instantaneous wind, solid state flux compass, and Flarm really impressed me. I would be duly impressed with a HUD. Maybe next glider.

WRT the computer, the problem the industry faces is lack of a viable market.. Apple sold 50 million cell phones last quarter. If you could capture the W.W. market for glider nav displays, what would it be in a given quarter? A couple of hundred? Split that market between 4 or 5 competitors. This is why glide computers running on cell phones and PDAs seem always to be ahead. The vendor need only concentrate on an application, the hardware, OS, UI, comm stacks, etc., are already written, debugged, and maintained to service a market of 50M units/q. The hardware enjoys the benefits of scale, resulting in a price that is about 1/4 - 1/3 what specialized hardware can be sold for. They get a technology refresh twice a year.