Future of 480

I was talking to an avionics guy the other day who was turning people
away from the 480. His reasoning is that Garmin orders the required
chips in bulk lots and once they are gone they are gone. Since the 480
install base is smaller than the 430/530 and since it does not seem
that Garmin wants to move the 480 software forward (all subsequence GPS
units have been based on the 430 software) he believes that at some
point 10 years down the road, chips will not be available. He said the
same will happen for the 430 but it will take much more time since
there is such a large install base and Garmin has more of an incentive
to order additional production lots.
Does that make sense?

-Robert

"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Does that make sense?

It is not readily apparent to me why the availability of a chip ten years
from now will affect the 480 units that are installed today.

--
Peter

Peter R. wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Does that make sense?

It is not readily apparent to me why the availability of a chip ten years
from now will affect the 480 units that are installed today.

Ten years from now, when your 480 dies and requires parts, they may not
be available, and if they're not, the unit would be useless.

-jav

Robert M. Gary wrote:
I was talking to an avionics guy the other day who was turning people
away from the 480. His reasoning is that Garmin orders the required
chips in bulk lots and once they are gone they are gone. Since the 480
install base is smaller than the 430/530 and since it does not seem
that Garmin wants to move the 480 software forward (all subsequence GPS
units have been based on the 430 software) he believes that at some
point 10 years down the road, chips will not be available. He said the
same will happen for the 430 but it will take much more time since
there is such a large install base and Garmin has more of an incentive
to order additional production lots.
Does that make sense?

It seems to me the future of the 480 is more likely to be determined by
Garmin's internal political climate, and the extent to which the
acquired UPSAT engineers will have a voice in the organization, the
extent to which they can overcome the not-invented-here syndrome.

In general if you can talk with one of the acquired UPSAT engineers,
they will tell you what a great product they have and that it has a
great future. If, on the other hand, you talk to one of the old-guard
Garmin sales folks whose comfort zone is the 430/530, they won't trash
talk the 480, but they'll really want to talk about the 430/530. The
Garmin sales force hasn't bought into the 480. Shame.

The 480 has going for it: that it is far technically superior to the
430/530, is the only TSO C146 navigator out there for the piston crowd,
and that Garmin has promised TSO C146 cert for the 430/530 for years but
repeatedly misses the dates.

The 430 is lower cost. The 530 has more interfaces and is a better MFD
for more money. The 480 occupies what should be a successful niche, for
piston pilots that want the best available IFR GPS navigation and don't
need the 530's interfaces.

My opinion, worth what you paid.

Peter R. wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Does that make sense?

It is not readily apparent to me why the availability of a chip ten years
from now will affect the 480 units that are installed today.

Today, would you rather own a 20 year old King radio or a Narco? I have
an old King KX-155. There are thousand out there, lots of parts and
lots of avionics people working on them. Hell, even the KX-170b still
has a HUGE install base with support for most problems.

-Robert

One possibility is that Garmin bought the 480 to get the technology
(and the people) to TSO the 430/530 products, as well as to get the
WAAS knowledge. I can't possibly see Garmin moving forward (i.e. making
new products) with two very different interfaces. They need to continue
to have one "Garmin" look&feel. Since the G1000, and the new "mini
G1000" are totally 430 interface based, it would be hard to imagine
that some new product "G2000??" would be 480 based.

I would totally expect the 480 technology to be seen in future Garmin
products, but I would be surprised if it looked anything like the 480.

-Robert

Javier wrote:

Ten years from now, when your 480 dies and requires parts, they may not
be available, and if they're not, the unit would be useless.

Do solid state chips fail with enough regularity for your scenario to be a
real risk?

--
Peter

In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

Javier wrote:

Ten years from now, when your 480 dies and requires parts, they may not
be available, and if they're not, the unit would be useless.

I fully expect any GPS installed today to be as obsolete in 10 years as the
KX-170 is today.

Roy Smith wrote:
In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

Javier wrote:

Ten years from now, when your 480 dies and requires parts, they may not
be available, and if they're not, the unit would be useless.

I fully expect any GPS installed today to be as obsolete in 10 years as the
KX-170 is today.

"obsolete" as in not current technology or "obsolete" as in not
serviceable?

-Robert

In article .com,
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

Roy Smith wrote:
In article ,
"Peter R." wrote:

Javier wrote:

Ten years from now, when your 480 dies and requires parts, they may not
be available, and if they're not, the unit would be useless.

I fully expect any GPS installed today to be as obsolete in 10 years as the
KX-170 is today.

"obsolete" as in not current technology or "obsolete" as in not
serviceable?

The former. Obsolete has nothing to do with serviceable. Lots of KX-170's
are perfectly serviceable. They are also obsolete.