Garmin makes another aquisition

[Time2Go]

Originally Posted by Bravo46

Seven years ago I did a complete electronics change out and installed full Garmin kit. I chose Garmin because the professional installers that I spoke to were unanimous claiming Garmin had the best support. That has proved to be true . Garmin support has rarely been needed, but it has been professional, prompt and tireless. In a $20,000 installation, and over seven years and many miles I have encountered only one case of obsolescence that cost me $200 to address.

Locally, Garmin acquired the excellent DeLorme InReach product, and that continues to be a great product .

I have had an Inreach for many years
Great bit of kit
HOWEVER, Garmin service in No Way compares
to the old Delorme days
God help you if you need a guestion answered
not during banking hours of 9-5 weekdays
and this is for a safety device
Cheers
Neil

[plebian99]

A disaster in the making and the killing of innovation, lateral and technical thinking by corporation that only thinks about returns and shareholder value. In 2 years time Vesper will be no more and their product status relegated market follower rather than market leader due to this takeover.

[svfinlandia]

Originally Posted by plebian99

A disaster in the making and the killing of innovation, lateral and technical thinking by corporation that only thinks about returns and shareholder value. In 2 years time Vesper will be no more and their product status relegated market follower rather than market leader due to this takeover.

I completely agree with your assessment. I hope we’re both wrong, but I doubt it.

Al, S/V Finlandia

[CaptTom]

I found myself chuckling throughout this thread. The very thought of Garmin caring about their customers is so quaint!

I own a Vesper product. The change to Garmin ownership won't make a bit of difference there. Vesper dropped support for my XB-8000 years ago. Does anyone else remember when a Vesper technician used to be active on all the boating forums, answering questions and solving problems? He also promised firmware updates which never came.

I also used to be an avid fan of both ActiveCaptain and DeLorme. Even before GPS I used DeLorme's paper atlases. Garmin had no interest in DeLorme's other lines of business, just the InReach (which I also own) and shut everything else down, laying off all the employees. And there's been no InReach development, beyond what DeLorme already had in the works, since the acquisition. Unless you count price increases.

Garmin probably doesn't want Vesper or its customers. They want to kill a competitor. Good things will NOT come from this. They'll keep selling the former Vesper products, but don't expect innovation, development or the old Vesper level of support.

[crayiii]

As an owner of a Vesper Cortex VHF/AIS, I will say that Garmin can't get much worse than the current lack of follow through on promised features or fixes for current issues. Maybe Garmin has someone who understands VHF and can actually get the unit to work as advertised.

[Hhew]

Well I think this is a smart acquisition and I applaud Garmin, but I work in tech and I see the challenges of system integration every day. Assuming Garmin integrates Vesper into their products as they have done with previous bolt-ons, they will again step up the game against Raymarine, B&G, and the rest. I’ve been considering AIS and a wider system upgrade, and Garmin is at the top of my interest list. I’ve used Garmin in cycling and running applications and I’ve never had an issue with product performance or support.

[JackNet]

There's been a record amount of acquisitions made within the industry during the pandemic to the point it should raise eyebrows about now. Garmin gobbling up Vesper joins in next to Brunswick's acquisition of Navico (Simrad/Lowrance) and Yamaha Marine with Siren. Actually, it's funny the Navico acquisition happened at the same time Garmin added Mercury engines support to their MFDs (Mercury also being part of Brunswick Corp).

Having previously questioned the state of boat electronics industry in a thread from a year or so ago, I knew myself from miles away M&As of this scale are likely to happen and they did. Leaving consolidations unchecked, without considering innovation impacts as a result of less competitive footprint, brings up stuff like this.

Originally Posted by skipmac

However there's no denying that they have alienated plenty of Garmin customers with their lack of support for previous model units. If it wasn't for that I would recommend Garmin without hesitation.

I definitely agree there is a issue with product support in the market. I've seen my share of boats with Garmin models that are at least 5-ish years old. Having support booted off after a year or two for a high-value product and something that is usually flush mounted... Yeah.

I had a panoptix PS51 as part of an MFD bundle that unfortunately broke during normal use and Garmin support didn't do anything about it and just told me to get another one, even though I only had it for less than a year and it was an issue that could be covered by most standard manufacturer warranties.

[ChrisPuget]

I also was sorry to hear that Doug Miller sold Milltech Marine. He was very helpful to me and is an excellent and patient communicator. I assume Milltech will remain a go to company in this market with the new experienced owner. Then I heard that Vesper was purchased by Garmin. A double blow! I am a fan of Garmin's aviation products but am not a big fan of their marine products. Garmin is probably busy developing an AIS product that will require a yearly subscription to download/install required updates.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Sailshabby

Well, since they bought up Navionics a couple years ago and I haven’t seen anything that’ll integrate with my Garmin chart plotter yet, I think we’ve got some cushion.

Because Navionics is interacted in a thousand other gears and even application so it makes a great business on its own and they can in parallel use the Navionics data for their maps too.

I was up for a Garmin on my last mono but dropping service support after 2 years is a killer for me, so I went with B&G. New used cat has Raymarine, the good old stuff but if I have to replace chartplotter I will go with B&G too. Best is buy the previous generation eg Zeus 3 instead 3+, great discounts and not much change and they support them for year….need the chartplotter because of the radar, everything else is via IPad Pro already….

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by ChrisPuget

I also was sorry to hear that Doug Miller sold Milltech Marine. He was very helpful to me and is an excellent and patient communicator. I assume Milltech will remain a go to company in this market with the new experienced owner. Then I heard that Vesper was purchased by Garmin. A double blow! I am a fan of Garmin's aviation products but am not a big fan of their marine products. Garmin is probably busy developing an AIS product that will require a yearly subscription to download/install required updates.

Exactly cashing out.

Use a Matsutec H102 which you can Programm myself, cheap and works like a charm with real CE certificate

[Networker]

Originally Posted by crayiii

As an owner of a Vesper Cortex VHF/AIS, I will say that Garmin can't get much worse than the current lack of follow through on promised features or fixes for current issues. Maybe Garmin has someone who understands VHF and can actually get the unit to work as advertised.

I honestly think the complete 2 year near lockdown in NZ killed Vesper’s ability to update their software and features. I pulled my hair out once as I watched a simple iPhone update to one of their apps never get updated. After some nasty emails, they said because of the lockdown, they couldn’t go into the office to push a software update. Once the lockdown ended, the app was updated in the apple store, so if that lockdown prevented a simple app update, they didn’t have the ability to do major updates and decided to sell.

[ThereAndBack]

Originally Posted by Networker

I honestly think the complete 2 year near lockdown in NZ killed Vesper’s ability to update their software and features. I pulled my hair out once as I watched a simple iPhone update to one of their apps never get updated. After some nasty emails, they said because of the lockdown, they couldn’t go into the office to push a software update. Once the lockdown ended, the app was updated in the apple store, so if that lockdown prevented a simple app update, they didn’t have the ability to do major updates and decided to sell.

IT people unable to work from home... And they called the company "innovative". While I thought it was neat that they were on the path to something different, I never understood why they didn't make an app so that any smartphone could become one of their handsets. You know, the 600+ dollar handsets. Oh wait...

[Networker]

Originally Posted by ThereAndBack

IT people unable to work from home... And they called the company "innovative". While I thought it was neat that they were on the path to something different, I never understood why they didn't make an app so that any smartphone could become one of their handsets. You know, the 600+ dollar handsets. Oh wait...

Agreed, that’s disappointing. I once saw that someone or they said the regulators wouldn’t allow it, but then I saw another company just did it so….

[shimari]

Originally Posted by ChrisPuget

... Garmin is probably busy developing an AIS product that will require a yearly subscription to download/install required updates.

This! They definitely want the recurring revenue from the monitoring as well.

[Noahr]

Unfortunately, I have learned (I am a B&G user) that ALL of the consumer electronics companies these days consider their products as “throwaway items” after 4-5 years.