430 vs 480 (CNX80) rehashed

"N2SX" wrote in message
oups.com...
I agree with you, mike. I would add, though, that Garmin paid for UPS
mostly to get rid of their primary competition. Even if they can the
480, the buy was probably worth it to their bottom line in the long
run. It is just hard for me to imagine the same company putting out
two essentially identical products, with the additional production
costs that entails. But all this is just very uneducated speculation,
so I'll shut up on the topic now. Just wondered what others thought.
If you doubt my information, please give Electronic Flight a call at
866-234-2359 and ask them about it.

Elton
N2SX


Actually UPS AT wasn't a meaningful competitor, they didn't make money and
revenue was about $40MM a year (from memory). They probably would never
have been since they were owned by a company focused on package delivery.
The big reasons for buying UPS was to aquire a lot of engineers with
avionics certification experience to get G1000 to the market and to aquire
the ADS-B intellectual property.

There really isn't much additional cost to put out two products once the
board assembly is programmed and debugged All this stuff is low volume
anyway. Garmin has kept products in production much longer than planned
when the market wanted them. An example is the GPS12 series. If you look
at Garmin's whole product line (automotive, recreation, marine ect) you will
find many niche products.

I don't doubt that the guy at Electronic Flight said what you say he said, I
just have reason to believe differently.

Mike
MU-2

N2SX wrote:
I know this has been discussed and discussed here, but I wanted to
share some information that I just received from the company that
produces a few excellent training computer programs for avionics.

Some background - I flew a cherokee 180 with a 430 for about 5 years.
This year I moved to a Lance and put in the cnx-80 and mx-20. I have
flown the heck out of that plane this year, so I have a good bit of
flying time with both the 430 and cnx-80 (it is in the shop now getting
"upgraded" to a 480).

I purchased the cnx-80 over a 430 (which I was very familiar with) for
the same reasons that have been expressed here before - airways,
vertical appraoch guidance, faster processer (and thus better response
time), etc. Being used to the 430, I did have some transition time
getting used to the cnx-80, but I am as, if not more, comfortable with
the new box as I was with the 430. I think the "overkill" or too
complex arguments have been a bit overstated.

Now my point, I have used the autopilot and lightning educational
software from Electronic Flight Solutions. I thought I knew everything
about those systems, but was surprised by how much I learned. So I
inquired about a 480 trainer. I was told that there were no plans for
that b/c the expectation was that the 480 would not be around much
longer. His argument was that once the $5,000 waas upgrade for the
430/530 is released next year, garmin would likely dump the 480.

He sais the 480 was just too complicated. As I indicated, I strongly
disagree with that. What do you think? What are the implications for us
cnx-80 owners with such a short-lived product?

What do I think? I think since Electronic Solutions offers training material for
the 430 and not the 480, it is in their interest to promote the impression that
the 480 won't be around much longer.

Unless you work for Garmin, it's all speculation.