In article ,
Non Toxic wrote:
...
complaints about the non standard datacards
...
Get over it Burnie. Its not a 'fault' that needs to be 'fixed'. Its designed
that way for a purpose.

Owning two Garmin units with the non standard datacards, I agree
with the other complainers that this is a 'fault' that needs to be
'fixed'. The only purpose for hangin on to them seems commercial,
i.e. in Garmins interest and not something beneficial to the
customers.
I doubt it is a wise decision for Garmin on the long run. I, for
one, will certainly not buy another unit with non-standard cards,
even though I have allready spend a shipload of money on both
Garmin's and C-map mapping software.

In fact the 376C adds extra MARINE features to the 276C model. In addition,
both units are only listed on Garmin's website as Marine Chart Plotters and
neither are anywhere to be seen on the Mobile Electronics page. The Garmin
format card is an integral part of the Marine Bluechart distribution and it
maintains compatibility with all of Garmins Marine Chart Plotters. Most
mariners just want a card they can purchase and plug in.

This is definately NOT true. Most mariners do not WANT to "just buy
A card to plugin": they HAD to do this because RayMarine, Garmin,
and other manufacturers only provided the map-data on such cards.

Slowly this is changing now, also for Garmin's BlueChart: if you
look f.i. at the availability of BlueChart for UK/NL/BE, you will
see that the availability of BlueChart on pre-programmed cards is
only a subset of what is available on CD-rom. This is true for a
number of years already, and as serious mariners update their maps
regularly, the "compatibility with old pre-programmed cards"-argument
is just not valid anymore. Certainly not for new equipment, one
which one usually wishes to use up-to-date mapping data instead of
using years out-dated data on old pre-programmed cards.

Another reason to go away of mapping software on pre-programmed
cards is the increasing availability of update-programs for mapping
data by Garmin's competition. Especially in regions where the
seabottom is not stable (f.i. the Wadden in NL) up-to-date maps are
essential for save navigation.

Regards,
-- ted