Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Category: The Trade

Garmin visit #2, GPSMap 78 6

Handheld / The Trade

Garmin visit #2, GPSMap 78

Garmin_78_industrial_design_evolution_cPanbo.JPG

Today Garmin introduced the GPSMap 78 series, an apparently major refresh of the 76 series long popular with boaters.  While I only got to fiddle with a pre-production unit for a moment, I did learn a lot about the industrial design process behind it.  The ID department in Olathe — aka “The Skunk Works” or “Area 51” —  has a tool collection that would make all sorts of craftsmen and artists drool, but I’ll save that story for another day.  What’s particularly notable about the exhibit shown above and below is how many design iterations were created and modeled for the 78, and how detailed they were…

Garmin visit #1, making stuff 9

The Trade

Garmin visit #1, making stuff

Messy maybe, but this is how marine electronics get made, and Garmin HQ in Olathe, Kansas, is all about making stuff.  The engineer who leads the hardware side of the marine department told me...

MTA Survey #1, brand awareness & perception 6

Panbo & misc. / What's on board... / The Trade

MTA Survey #1, brand awareness & perception

Panbo_MTA_survey_brand1.JPG

Please don’t jump to conclusions about this first real slice of the finished Panbo/MTA survey until you better understand what it represents. The questions quoted at the top of the table above were “open ended”.  The 950 people who spent time taking the survey (thank you all!) got no check box guidance toward their answers.  In fact, no brand names were specifically mentioned anywhere in the survey.  So the 1,558 positive responses, along with the 773 negative ones — no, almost none of you ornery cusses did as asked, naming three of each — are purely the brand names that came into nearly 1,000 minds when asked in privacy which marine technology products had either pleased or displeased them. The individual response totals then are a mix of at least three factors:  market share (how many of the survey takers own, or have owned, some of a brand’s products); brand awareness (most may remember whose MFD they use, but not necessarily whose inverter); and brand perception (the emotion that brings a brand name to mind).  And there are more complexities beyond…

Electronics survey, there’s still time 11

The Trade

Electronics survey, there’s still time

MTA_survey_first_look.JPG

Almost 400 marine electronics users have already taken the survey announced here earlier this month, and Marine Technology Analysts (MTA) has done a little preliminary data crunching.  Users were asked to name up to three of their favorite sources and, while 152 outlets were named, the top 11 seen above appeared in 60% of the surveys.  MTA also tells me that some strong patterns are developing in terms of what users most desire from those sources, not to mention what they want in terms of products.  But more data would be great.  Please take a 10-15 minute break to fill out the survey today; chances are good that the effort will help the marine electronics industry, Panbo, and ultimately you.

MIBS ME, lots happening, all good! 22

The Trade / Zany

MIBS ME, lots happening, all good!

cranial_release_cPanbo.jpg

Instead of being released, my cranium got completely stuffed in Miami last week.  Now, there is a phenomenon whereby the more I cover marine electronics, the more developers I know and the more they want to tell me about their latest projects.  But there’s something else going on, too:  I believe the pace of innovation is increasing and some healthy trends are emerging.  I’ll try to hit a few today, but it may take weeks to detail all the good things I saw at the show…

Welcome MTA, MI for ME at last! 19

The Trade

Welcome MTA, MI for ME at last!

I’m not the sort of guy who usually spends time looking for diagrams and explanations regarding a field like Market Intelligence (MI), but I’m pretty darn sure that the Marine Electronics (ME) industry could...

Raymarine nearly sold(?) & Honeywell’s holiday surprise 20

The Trade

Raymarine nearly sold(?) & Honeywell’s holiday surprise

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The news from London (reported somewhat differently here) is that Raymarine’s board is now negotiating with a single buyer, which is not Garmin, and anticipates a deal in which all debts will be paid off and credit lines extended (but from which share holders may get zilch).  Of course the deal is not done, but it sure sounds more certain, and a lot like what many of us were predicting last month.  We may not know who the buyer is for a while, but doesn’t it seem even less likely that Raymarine will go away?  However, part of the due diligence still underway may involve the lawsuit that Honeywell laid on Raymarine, Furuno, and Navico on Wednesday…

Raymarine E-Wide hands-on #1, & money talk 25

Navigation / The Trade

Raymarine E-Wide hands-on #1, & money talk

Mark_n_Jim_-_Raymarine_visit_cPanbo.JPG

Raymarine product manager Mark Garland and marketing manager Jim McGowan kindly came to Maine last Thursday and swapped a new E140 Widescreen for the C140W I used for radar comparisons all summer. They were lucky in terms of testing-on-the-Bay weather, but not so lucky in terms of dire sounding Raymarine financial news that I felt compelled to drill them about. I’ll save that for last, though, as the E Wide is definitely worth top billing…

Kees at Mets, almost like walking the show 15

Fishing & Sonar / Electrical & Engines / The Trade

Kees at Mets, almost like walking the show

Echopilot_3d-forward-looking-sonar.JPG

Wow, Kees Verrujit, our N2K Panbot in an attic, has out done his own reporting on last year’s METS, and he even shot some videos for us.  A collective tip of the beanies to Kees, please: 

In
general the feeling was quietly positive. Everyone still around will probably be able to weather the remainder of the economic storm. Attendance today was lower than the earlier two editions I visited, but then this was my first time visiting on the last day so I can’t say for
sure how busy it was. Sorry to say, there was no big big news. Still there were a number of exciting new developments. I’ve kept those to the end of this long mail!