That was my (uninformed) opinion too - unfortunately I had to eat humble
pie
when I started asking the designers some "pointed" questions. For
starters,
as I said in a previous post, you have to compare apples with apples.
Show
me the microprocessor in the headset interface - show me the intercom -
show
me the seperate satelite phone connection - show me the individual
controls
over input / output levels for all of the above. Show me how some of the
competing products raise the mic bias level to actually make an
incompatible
headset compatible (and is fine tuned even more by adjustment of the mic
volume).

That's called overkill. I have no idea what's in my cellset. Don't
care. The cellphone volume is the same as the radio volume, you don't
realize how important that is until you use a unit that doesn't do that.
Unit works flawlessly, it rings in my headset and people on the other
end cannot tell I'm in the plane. If I didn't tell them that I was
flying they would never know it. I built a little L shaped stand that
is velcroed to my windshield so the phone antenna is always looking
outside, always get a signal and makes it easy to dial while in flight.

If it's overkill for your needs than that's not the model for you - as I've
mentioned - if all you want to do is make a call then they have a cheaper
model that does that. If you appreciate more of the bells and whistles then
the flightcell might be your cup of tea. Eg how you can cut air traffic
comms down to 1/2 volume while you're on the phone - use it as an intercom -
adjust volume levels to compensate for various things within your avionics -
rechargeable batteries - chargers - connectors/adaptors etc

I've spent many hours talking with John (the creator) about it - like some
here he too thought it would be a 1 hour project on a Saturday afternoon -
but as he got into it and through the various revisions more and more things
had to be taken into account (more "bells and whistles") - I can't say if
it's the right product for any particular person - I can say however that
it's a VERY high-quality product that covers many more areas than competing
products that I know of. I use one and can personally testify that it does
what it should.

I could go back to John and get part numbers etc to prove a point, but to be
honest, I've really got more important things to do with my day - and I have
a feeling that once some peoples minds are made up they're not going to
change them at any cost. All I can say is I thought that way once too -
until I got to know a lot of the behinds the scenes things - at which point
I had to admit that they people that built it weren't idiots and aren't
ripping people off - if folks choose to question my integrity when I say
that, then so be it - I can live with it I don't always agree with John's
marketing techniques - but that's something we continue to have healthy
debates over.

Like many things in life it's very easy to reach a conclusion when you don't
have all the information - unfortunately, it's often the wrong concludion.

Well whatever. When you're $150 more than the competition and the
public sees the units as equal you're screwed.

Well then I guess he's lucky enough that enough members of the public have
done their homework, and don't see them as equal. If you want to meet the
maker call into the Flightcell booth at the next Oshkosh - John usually
flies across to be at each one (even though his youngest daughter is
starting to wonder who he is!)