On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:30:43 -0500, Harry
wrote:

On 1/27/10 5:26 PM, Harry wrote:
...the new Apple iPad, announced today, looks like an interesting
proposition for hosting an on-board GPS chartplotter. It has a screen
that's just under 10" diagonally, a built-in on-screen keypad,
solid-state storage up to 64 gigs, and a selling price that starts at
just under $500.

Dedicated chartplotters with that size screen are typically $2000+.

It's not going to take long for a chartplotter purveyor of on-board
software to come up with an app that takes advantage of the device.

Oh...there already are nav apps that work well on the 3G
iphones...navionics has one. for example.

Crikey...a 10" chartplotter for about $600 that does lots of other
stuff, too.

Obviously doesn't include charts. I'm sure charts could be had
cheaply but better resolution will come from those in the biz.

Haven't seen the specs so I don't know what the processing power is.
With higher resolution charts, satellite images, you need pretty
reasonable processing power to maintain a decent refresh rate.

Also, you need some serious brightness in a daylight display. That's
been the difference between off the shelf slate tablets (which are now
hovering in the $700 -$1000 range with an atom processor) and what's
produced for outdoor use.