Cost reduction trend in electronic cartography
 

Has anyone noticed the trend in lower costs for electronic cartography.
Garmin is selling a chartplotter with full US coastal Bluechart cartography
for about $900. Some vendors charge more than double that for software only
to buy full US coverage.

Also Maptech is providing a CD as part of their paper Chartkit product.

So, are we seeing a fundamental change in the market for electronic
cartography? It is about time.

David

David&Joan wrote:
Has anyone noticed the trend in lower costs for electronic
cartography. Garmin is selling a chartplotter with full US coastal
Bluechart cartography for about $900. Some vendors charge more than
double that for software only to buy full US coverage.

Also Maptech is providing a CD as part of their paper Chartkit
product.

So, are we seeing a fundamental change in the market for electronic
cartography? It is about time.

David

Software, like everything else in IT, has an amortization period. When you
have sold the first 25,000 or whatever, and the stuff is being pirated
willy-nilly worldwide, you don't have too many options if you wish to stay
in the game.

Dennis.

Dennis Pogson wrote:
David&Joan wrote:

Has anyone noticed the trend in lower costs for electronic
cartography. Garmin is selling a chartplotter with full US coastal
Bluechart cartography for about $900. Some vendors charge more than
double that for software only to buy full US coverage.

Software, like everything else in IT, has an amortization period. When you
have sold the first 25,000 or whatever, and the stuff is being pirated
willy-nilly worldwide, you don't have too many options if you wish to stay
in the game.

There's also the fact that lots more people are starting to use it. I
guess some manufacturers are seeing that if they lower the price they'll
sell more.

The beauty with digital cartography is, of course, that the costs to
produce it are relatively constant. So increased sales should mean lower
prices. Thank god, finally!

-- Kees