Future of 480

Ron Natalie wrote:
Javier wrote:
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.


In 10 years I suspect the 480 will be as obsolete as the King
Nav/Com's it replaced.

Do you think the 430 has any better life expectancy. The thing
is already nearing obsolescence.

I don't know either way. I was just answering the question by Peter R.

Since there are more 430's out there than 480's, will Garmin have more
incentive to keep parts in stock for the 430? I don't know, either.

-jav

Ron Natalie wrote:
In 10 years I suspect the 480 will be as obsolete as the King
Nav/Com's it replaced.

Do you think the 430 has any better life expectancy. The thing
is already nearing obsolescence.

I work in a software development group. My employer is a large corporation
which has a history of acquiring other software companies. The group I'm
in has people and code from several different acquired companies. Our goal
is to take the best from all of them and end up with something which is
better than any of the ingredients.

My group's motto is "Don't name the farm animals". If you fall in love
with the cute little calf you grew up with, sooner or later you're going to
be devastated when you discover that it's been chopped up, made into
hamburger, and served to you for dinner.

The 480 is indeed a great box. I love the box. But, when you look at in
comparison to the 430/530 line, here's where it shakes out in my mind.

480: WAAS, airway database
430: Easier UI to learn

If Garmin has any brains (and I thing they have proven that they do),
they've been working hard to suppress any internal turf wars. It's bound
to happen, of course. Both the 430 and the 480 are wonderful products, and
their software development teams both have a right to be proud of their
accomplishments. But, the goal of the company (and I'm sure they knew this
before they shook hands on the buyout) has to be to do what's best for the
company in the long run. And that can't be maintaining two overlapping
product lines forever. It just doesn't make sense.

It's clear that Garmin is getting WAAS into the 430. They may be behind
schedule, but they'll get there. That leaves the only advantage to the 480
to be the airway database. Maybe they'll do that in the 430 line too,
maybe not. But that feature alone is not enough to keep the 480 product
alive forever.

My club's planes fly about 300 hours a year. If we get 10 years out of a
box that costs $10k to install, that works out to about $3/hr for us.
That's not bad. How many of us own 10 year old laptops? Or 10 year old
cell phones? Or 10 year old digital cameras? It's just the way it is with
electronics.

Roy Smith wrote:
Ron Natalie wrote:
Do you think the 430 has any better life expectancy. The thing
is already nearing obsolescence.

I work in a software development group. My employer is a large corporation
which has a history of acquiring other software companies. The group I'm
in has people and code from several different acquired companies. Our goal
is to take the best from all of them and end up with something which is
better than any of the ingredients.
...
480: WAAS, airway database
430: Easier UI to learn

I work in the industry as well (I show up in the patent database now
with more to come, it only takes 5-10 years of gov't processing). I
would agree that Garmin will keep the 430 interface and suck the
required technologies out of the 480. You gotta go to market with your
best foot. As much as us techy pilots like the features of the 480,
Garmin's bread and butter is its interface. The softkeys on the 480
just add a layer of complexity. Even simple com changes require the use
of softkeys. As a CFI I can tell you there is a HUGE population of
older pilots out there that look at you with confusion when they see
it. I already know of several avionics shops that ask "are you a techy
type guy" when you ask for a 480 quote (because I have).
However, I would add one more thing to the 480's attributes. Holding.
The holding functionality in the 480 is just awesome powerful. If
Garmin would put that in the 430 software I'd be pretty happy. The fact
that the G1000 takes nothing from the 480 and everything from the 430
tells you something. If you can drive a 430 you can drive the nav
portion of the G1000.

-Robert, CFII, MBA, BS CS