Lowrance GPS

"karl gruber" wrote:

Garmin leads the way in GPS and the other manufacturers are just
playing catch up. There is no comparison, the 396 is the cutting edge
and has the best form factor and user interface.

True, alas.

The 396 is a great piece of gear, but we desperately need some real
competition in this field. What's Lowrance's problem, anyway?

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

The 396 is a great piece of gear, but we desperately need some real
competition in this field. What's Lowrance's problem, anyway?

Lowrance is big, dumb, and the world-leader in marine GPS -- a far larger
market -- so they look at aviation as an impossibly tiny niche market.

I'll bet their marine units get XM first.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article URqAf.714896$x96.702487@attbi_s72,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:
Lowrance is big, dumb, and the world-leader in marine GPS -- a far larger
market -- so they look at aviation as an impossibly tiny niche market.

I'll bet their marine units get XM first.

The fact that Garmin has delivered XM on its marine units and Lowrance
hasn't just illustrates by how much Lowrance missed the boat.

Hopefully, they'll get on board soon. I have the impression that Garmin
pitched quite a few resources at XM delivery (they designed the
receivers and software themselves), and I suspect that such an
investment may have been a larger risk for Lowrance. Garmin has
products outside of the portable markets to which they could apply this
investment.

I will point out that I have preferred Lowrance units over the years,
but XM weather was too important for me to wait around for Lowrance.
While I don't care for some elements of Garmin's units, their UI is very
well designed, and they've done an excellent job of implementing the XM
weather features.



JKG

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Lowrance is big, dumb, and the world-leader in marine GPS -- a far
larger market -- so they look at aviation as an impossibly tiny niche
market.

I'll bet their marine units get XM first.

....and by the time they have an XmWx aviation unit, Garmin will have
their next gen. unit ready to blow it away.

Crystal ball: Lowrance's unit will therefore sell poorly, justifying the
internal nay-sayers at Lowrance and guranteeing their continued weak r&d
spending on aviation portables.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

Dan,

The 396 is a great piece of gear, but we desperately need some real
competition in this field. What's Lowrance's problem, anyway?


We have competition. Only not in the very top end of the market. Glad
you can all afford that kind of unit. I certainly can't.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

"Thomas Borchert" wrote in message
...
Dan,

The 396 is a great piece of gear, but we desperately need some real
competition in this field. What's Lowrance's problem, anyway?


We have competition. Only not in the very top end of the market.

That's the point...

Glad you can all afford that kind of unit. I certainly can't.

....and that's the problem. I bet Garmin is making some very fat margin
on the 396, as they should for beating the hell out of their
competitors. Nice for them; tough for us who want--hell, *need*--the
revolutionary capabilities of the 396.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

In article ,
Thomas Borchert wrote:
The 396 is a great piece of gear, but we desperately need some real
competition in this field. What's Lowrance's problem, anyway?


We have competition. Only not in the very top end of the market. Glad
you can all afford that kind of unit. I certainly can't.

We don't have competition, because there is no other hand held unit on
the market that can do XM weather. Therefore, there is no competitive
unit to the Garmin 396.

For you, it really doesn't matter since you're outside of the US. I
can't see any real benefit to the 396 if you can't receive XM signals
and obtain data relevant to your area.



JKG

"Thomas Borchert" wrote in message ...
Dan,

The 396 is a great piece of gear, but we desperately need some real
competition in this field. What's Lowrance's problem, anyway?


We have competition. Only not in the very top end of the market. Glad
you can all afford that kind of unit. I certainly can't.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

There was an article in the "Daily" or "Sunday Oklahoman" a week or so ago. Lowrance is merging with a foreign
electronics company that specializes in high end electronics for expensive boats. What this means for aviation.. I
guess we'll have to wait and see. Could be good / could be bad. I found the following link.

http://www.lowrance.com/company/pres...rger013006.htm

Joe Schneider
8437R



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