ISailor charts now charging annual subscription

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Moody Mike

Why the angst well we bought & paid for something we recomended it others who did the same so it grew & grew. Its biggest selling point was the free upgrades & they came around often. I understand if your wealthy it doesnt mean much but most the people who use this app do so because they cant afford a plotter. If I buy something I expect to get what I paid for. They told us free upgrades & there were no anual subscriptions. If you dont undersrand why we are anoyed Im sorry I cant help you.

Well, it’s a free app with no advertising so I guess it makes its money from selling charts and the additional data services. I suppose the cost to them of updating charts overwhelmed their sources of revenue - probably the reason why the app was sold to another developer, who likely saw an untapped revenue stream in charging for updates in the same way that every other provider of commercial charts does. The new owner probably decided that their user base is loyal enough that they won’t lose too many users - I guess we’ll see about that.

I get why you’re annoyed, but it is a free app. My standards aren’t too high for those. Free apps have to be paid for somehow - either by advertising or by charging for extra services. Yes, a bummer, but the alternative is that they would have needed to stop all development of the app (which they effectively had before the sale to the new owners).

[El Pinguino]

Its a free app.... but to have any value at all you have to buy at least one chart folio.... unless you live in Hobart.......

I think what was said above nails it ... buy a mature business for X dollars.... change the model.... quadruple the revenue.... what can go wrong?

I also think that the business probably was mature... pretty much everyone has the portfolios they want... not much new business... income stream down the tubes...

No way of surviving... unless you charge for updates.

I would not mind paying $10 a year on my $80 purchase.... stuffed if I am interested in paying $49 a year.......

[Capt.Don]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Your free charts (such as Hobart and Wellington Harbours) will continue to update for free as they are free samples. Your paid charts will now require annual purchase (subscription?) to continue getting updates for another year. But if you don’t purchase then the existing charts continue to be available, just not updated.

Attachment 181689

Considering that iSailor is a free app that doesn’t have advertising this still isn’t a bad deal. Though the separate charges for each of the external connections (existing charges, not new) do make it relatively expensive. Does anyone know if these are one time charges or annual?

Attachment 181691 and Attachment 181692 and Attachment 181693

But it is so much easier to use than the open source alternative I know about (qtVlm) and switching to a competitor like SEAiq means buying charts all over again and relearning the interface, but at $90 for all the external connections that works out cheaper than iSailor.

Does anyone use either of these apps?

I liked iSailor's interface and the Transas chart, but could not justify the add-ons and buying NOAA charts. I ended up adopting SEAiq - does everything I need and their support is great. What I'm finding useful using both OpenCPN on the laptop and SEAiq on the tablet is both support KAP chart files and Google Earth KAP files, etc.

Here's a good discussion on SEAiq.


Don

[Moody Mike]

Exactly ��

[Moody Mike]

Isailor is fading away approval rating now down to 2.5 & still falling

[steehl]

Since support is not responding I wrote an e-mail to the (hopefully current) COO of Wärtsilä Voyage. His name is Andrey Sitkov.



Frank Coles (which i referred to above) has left the company in September.





Wärtsiläs e-mail addresses follow the form firstname(dot)lastname(at)wartsila.com.

[Moody Mike]

Im not getting any response either I will send a message to Andrey Sitkov as well send us his email address & I will share it with the other Isailor customers on FB , sailing & cruising, sailing australia & other forums

[Moody Mike]

Andrey Sitkov here is his linked in profile
https://ru.linkedin.com/in/andrey-sitkov-68311114 Send him a message & tell him what you think of his buisness model

[steehl]

Got a reply from Andrey Sitkov (or probably someone managing his email-account) after 23 hours!



He cc:ed his german marketing director, and a british PR lady (all Russian names by the way), but was saying nothing really new:

- We should have communicated better
- Hydro offices changed terms so we had to follow up
- All is fine regarding T&Cs
- We will improve that app further
- we will invest in customer service for faster replies


I brought up 4 topics:

- Term changes are at least questionable under EC-law
- fees are pretty high compared to competition
- folio buyers in summer 2018 are hit especially hard
- service and communication is pretty poor (aka unresponsive)


Hi did not address topic 3 at all, so I guess the answer is a standardised email template they are sending out multiple times.

[StuartWeibel]

I have used iSailor for several years, and I appreciated the free chart updates. I may just continue to use it without updates for the near term (I sail mostly the Inside Passage, Seattle to Alaska, and not much changes along those waters). Longer term, I'll be looking at other apps, but a decision to change horses will be based on functionality, not my disaffection concerning their business model change.

A friend recommended SeaPilot, and I'll give that a try... it has free charts for US waters, so all I need to pay for is the BC charts ($15 a year). The app itself is $40 a year for the premium version.

Free is always the right price, but $55 a year for a good charting ap is not a bad deal. About the same as a quart of varnish and a brush to apply it.

[uncledom]

I tried it last season and wasn't really impressed with the interface. Never did get it to talk to my XB8000 AIS either even though I sent them an email. They never replied. As soon as I saw I needed to repurchase the charts I deleted it. No great loss.

[Moody Mike]

They posted this on face book so its obvious no one is paying the Subs pr upgrading the App. Those above who think $55 a year is ok dont seem to realise thatvits $55 per chart. Ok if you dont go far but this year I used my charts in France , Corsica, Sardinia, Messina Straits, Italy & Greece as well as Australia. Thats A lot of $55 charts.

[El Pinguino]

As I understand it it is $55 per folio (of charts) ie I get 500 or so charts in the Chilean folio.... but still off the scale if you are kitted up for a long voyage and need several folios.....

[Moody Mike]

Their App ratings are falling quicker than a lead balloon now down to 2 which is in the rubbish zone Navionics is at 4+ . Wurtsila need to come up with a better deal quickly.
I encourage all ISailor customers to visit the app store give a rating & write a new review . If Wurtsila can come up with a better deal I will continue to use the service but the current subscription fees are way to high. The flow on to other Wurtsila products & services may see them losing a lot of money & major contracts.

[fxykty]

iSailor is still a decent app, free to download and update (the app), and you have to pay for chart folios as you always have down with it. That’s no different to any other app that I know of, especially for areas that don’t have free charts in any format. So if you’re all pissed off at iSailor for charging for updates (and that’s only if you opt in to updates) what’s your alternative?

With iSailor you also have to pay for data connections and that really brings the price up, so in my case that’s the deal breaker and I’ll be trying SEAiq and some others.

I’ve been running iSailor just fine with a non-updated chart folio and I do have automatic updates turned on in the App Store but have turned off app updates in iTunes and that seems to have done the trick to not update and charge for the purchased chart folio.

Social media beat up of a company (or person or whatever) is so snowflake and will be remembered as a 20-teens phenomenon that thankfully passed out of favour relatively quickly (I can only hope). Vote with your feet and pick another app; what do you care what its rating is in the App Store?