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.