Jeppeson

On Apr 5, 7:10 am, Mxsmanic wrote:
Aluckyguess writes:
Jeppeson sure has a nice little monopoly going. $760.00 to get the updates
for my mx 20 and Apollo 60 GPS.
Dang.

And the margins are probably around 99.9999%, since generating an update
probably requires no more than pressing a button.


Good god; the fjukkkwitedness is just beyond belief:


Bertie

Mxsmanic wrote:
Aluckyguess writes:

Jeppeson sure has a nice little monopoly going. $760.00 to get the updates
for my mx 20 and Apollo 60 GPS.
Dang.

And the margins are probably around 99.9999%, since generating an update
probably requires no more than pressing a button.

And paying engineers to design the software that backs up pushing the
button. Maintaining a cartography staff to handle the fact that there
are holes in the government provided data. Maintaining 24/7 customer
support for people who can't figure out how to download the data. Oh,
and paying for liability insurance or self insuring in case someone
gets a judgement. Oh and maintaining legal counsel to defend against
a number of lawsuits pending against them at any given time claiming
they were responsible for real or perceived responsibility in an
accident.

Oh yeah, it's such a profitable business that Google and every
other computer company is clamoring to get into the biz.

Ron Natalie writes:

And paying engineers to design the software that backs up pushing the
button. Maintaining a cartography staff to handle the fact that there
are holes in the government provided data. Maintaining 24/7 customer
support for people who can't figure out how to download the data. Oh,
and paying for liability insurance or self insuring in case someone
gets a judgement. Oh and maintaining legal counsel to defend against
a number of lawsuits pending against them at any given time claiming
they were responsible for real or perceived responsibility in an
accident.

All that, plus a 95% mark-up for profit.

Oh yeah, it's such a profitable business that Google and every
other computer company is clamoring to get into the biz.

It's not a free market.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Mxsmanic wrote:

All that, plus a 95% mark-up for profit.

Jepp would be doing better if it were.


Oh yeah, it's such a profitable business that Google and every
other computer company is clamoring to get into the biz.

It's not a free market.

How so? It's certainly possible for others to get into it.
Howie Keefe was in the printed chart business for years both
in reproducing the government charts and in producing his
own charts when the government didn't have something
comparable.

There are any number of people doing EFB and GPS-on-PDA
and GPS-on-computer products using combinations of
government and self produced data.

All you gotta do is get your data in line and convince
Garmin and the other manufacturers that it would be in
their best interest to either switch to you or offer
the customers a choice.

On Apr 5, 3:28 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
Ron Natalie writes:
And paying engineers to design the software that backs up pushing the
button. Maintaining a cartography staff to handle the fact that there
are holes in the government provided data. Maintaining 24/7 customer
support for people who can't figure out how to download the data. Oh,
and paying for liability insurance or self insuring in case someone
gets a judgement. Oh and maintaining legal counsel to defend against
a number of lawsuits pending against them at any given time claiming
they were responsible for real or perceived responsibility in an
accident.

All that, plus a 95% mark-up for profit.

Oh yeah, it's such a profitable business that Google and every
other computer company is clamoring to get into the biz.

It's not a free market.

Oh herre's a surprise; you're wrong again:


Bertei

On Apr 5, 6:07 am, Ron Natalie wrote:
Mxsmanic wrote:
Aluckyguess writes:

Jeppeson sure has a nice little monopoly going. $760.00 to get the updates
for my mx 20 and Apollo 60 GPS.
Dang.

And the margins are probably around 99.9999%, since generating an update
probably requires no more than pressing a button.

And paying engineers to design the software that backs up pushing the
button. Maintaining a cartography staff to handle the fact that there
are holes in the government provided data. Maintaining 24/7 customer
support for people who can't figure out how to download the data. Oh,
and paying for liability insurance or self insuring in case someone
gets a judgement. Oh and maintaining legal counsel to defend against
a number of lawsuits pending against them at any given time claiming
they were responsible for real or perceived responsibility in an
accident.

Oh yeah, it's such a profitable business that Google and every
other computer company is clamoring to get into the biz.

I don't believe the interface is open. No one else can get into the
biz. This is what generated several law suites against Atari and
Intellivision when I was a kid. Someone just needs to challenge them
in court to open these interfaces on the basis of anti-trust.

-Robert

Robert M. Gary wrote:


I don't believe the interface is open. No one else can get into the
biz. This is what generated several law suites against Atari and
Intellivision when I was a kid. Someone just needs to challenge them
in court to open these interfaces on the basis of anti-trust.

The interface doesn't need to be open. CompanyX needs to sell
the Garmins and Honeywell/Bendix/Kings, and Chiltons of the world
to convince them that they should allow the support (or push for
a standard interface). That's all part of what a free market is.
There's no artificial obstacle from someone getting into the biz
other than the fact that Jeppesen has been doing it for a very
long time.

On Apr 5, 12:21 pm, Ron Natalie wrote:
Robert M. Gary wrote:

I don't believe the interface is open. No one else can get into the
biz. This is what generated several law suites against Atari and
Intellivision when I was a kid. Someone just needs to challenge them
in court to open these interfaces on the basis of anti-trust.

The interface doesn't need to be open. CompanyX needs to sell
the Garmins and Honeywell/Bendix/Kings, and Chiltons of the world
to convince them that they should allow the support (or push for
a standard interface). That's all part of what a free market is.
There's no artificial obstacle from someone getting into the biz
other than the fact that Jeppesen has been doing it for a very
long time.

Then we don't need anti-trust laws at all.

-Robert, MBA

Ron Natalie writes:

The interface doesn't need to be open. CompanyX needs to sell
the Garmins and Honeywell/Bendix/Kings, and Chiltons of the world
to convince them that they should allow the support (or push for
a standard interface). That's all part of what a free market is.
There's no artificial obstacle from someone getting into the biz
other than the fact that Jeppesen has been doing it for a very
long time.

Just like Microsoft.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

On Apr 5, 1:10 am, Mxsmanic wrote:
Aluckyguess writes:
Jeppeson sure has a nice little monopoly going. $760.00 to get the updates
for my mx 20 and Apollo 60 GPS.
Dang.

And the margins are probably around 99.9999%, since generating an update
probably requires no more than pressing a button.

Don't they wish. Updates have to be compiled, verified manually and
then checked again. You're talking about things like the change in
elevation of a tower you could run into, for example, so lives are at
stake. They have to be put in the correct chart, and perhaps other
markings moved around. And that's just a tiny piece compared to all
the frequency, runway, nav aid, taxiway, etc changes each cycle.

Anyone who's spent their evening doing the update sheet dance with
their paper binder, knows a minor part of the pain from the end user
standpoint ;-)

Kev