Make it happen and get a lot of beer! Rich
> On Feb 19, 2014, at 22:06, Stevan Plavsa <stevanpla...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Do you guys know what OS Raymarine, Garmin et al use? I'm sure they're > different but I'm guessing they are all proprietary to their brand. Is that > correct? If it is, that would mean that they have a whole team of people > developing their OS, right? > > Why? > > A thought: why don't they simply license Android, fire their software > department (or re-orient them to create amazing Raymarine/Garmin, whatever > apps for Android) and make more money? We the consumer get a platform that's > much more flexible than what those devices are currently running plus access > to all these wonderful apps, which would only get better and better if there > was a hardware environment for them more suitable to the marine environment > than tablets. The fact that Raymarine now has apps for those devices is > telling, people are clearly using tablets on their boats. I think they have > it backwards. Don't bring raymarine to the android device. Bring Android to > the raymarine device. The marine tech companies are in the hardware business > first, software is secondary. They should stick to their core competency and > let the big guys do the software part. More frequent updates and bug fixes, a > standard user experience regardless of manufacturer. The freedom and ability > to run all kinds of apps on your boat computer (because that's what a chart > plotter is). Etc. There's already a software environment which means there is > demand in the market (navionics, mx mariner, opencpn, etc). My feeling is > that the software companies are going to be able to provide much better apps > for us than what raymarine and garmin are currently giving us. > > Imagine a raymarine computer at your helm, just like their top of the line > plotter but you can install whatever you want on it and do whatever you can > currently do with your android device (because it runs android). If they > wanted to, they could port their chart software to android and sell it as an > app or provide coupon codes to download it free with the purchase of their > hardware. Why is Raymarine developing music playing apps and weather apps for > their proprietary platform? That costs money! and this stuff already exists. > > Think blackberry. They got it all wrong. Along came Samsung and took the > entire market (Apple too, but Samsung is #1). If blackberry licensed Android > before the whole end game thing happened I think they'd still be around, and > profitable. People liked their platform, sure, but what they really liked was > their hardware. I've played around with the chart plotters at the boat show > and the chandleries. I wasn't really impressed with any of the interfaces. > They should continue to build amazing marine grade HARDWARE and let the > people that know software handle that part. > > Someone is going to come along and do this. Personally, I would buy a "Marine > Tough" android device for the helm before I purchased any purpose built > plotter. It would do everything that a plotter does plus so much more (for > those times when you're alongside a dock and want to watch a movie in the > cockpit or some other frivolous thing like facebook or the C&C mailing list > ;) ). Hell, install a display down below. > "Computer. Play movie. Terminator 2." > And so on. Science fiction had it all figured out with Hal. One central > computer. > > One computer to rule them all and in the dorkness bind them. > > I wish I was capable of starting a business like this, I'de do it myself. > > Most people have MULTIPLE computers on board. The VHF these days is a > computer, the laptop at the nav station, the chart plotter, the instrument > displays .. why?!!! Just give me one CPU running a commonly used platform and > let the software companies duke it out. Plug in a bunch of dumb displays or > interactive displays, whatever your budget allows. Hook up all your > transducers and sensors and you're off to the races. Focus on making amazing > marine hardware and continue to charge marine prices for it. Stop spending > money on coders to maintain your proprietary system and MAKE MORE MONEY. Or > like I said before, turn them into an App department and port what they've > already got as apps .. FOR SALE! > > > Rambling thoughts on a wednesday night. > Someone's going to owe me a beer if this happens. > > Steve > Suhana, C&C 32 > Toronto > > _______________________________________________ > This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album > http://www.cncphotoalbum.com > CnC-List@cnc-list.com
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