Garmin Bluechart Mobile App - Where are you?

Shared Dream II

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Shared Dream
Does anybody have the inside story on the new Garmin Bluechart Mobile app? It is scheduled for availability in the summer of 2012. Since the summer is rapidly diappearing, maybe the season or year is incorrect on their website?
 
I've sent Email to ActiveCaptain enquiring about this... will post back any reply I get on this subject. I agree this Garmin product is very late in coming. I suspect ActiveCaptain will respond quicker than sending the same enquiry to Garmin. 😉 No matter, I did send same enquiry to Garmin and the immediate response was that a Garmin Specialist will get back to me within 3 business days... we'll see who gets back to me the soonest.... 🙂
 
Shared Dream II:

Hang in there my man... as I suspected ActiveCaptain (Jeff) responded quickly to me... I post his Email to me on this subject and hope he doesn't mind that I do this...

Hi Barry,

Thanks for your comment in ActiveCaptain.

I believe it is very close. There is a final test version coming out this week and I understand that it'll then be released to Apple. We'll definitely write about it in our newsletter the moment it is available. I would definitely expect it in their promised "summer" delivery date. I've been using it as a tester since February and it's really done. There's some final connectivity testing to MFD's that needs to be done - I'm one of the testers for that too and they're waiting on my own report.

Cheers!

...Jeff
 
I was told they are currently working on private labeling an optimized 12V router to support the wifi connection to the MFD.

We'll learn first hand at the Rendezvous.

Cheers,

Bruce
 
Bruce Moore":j9ps0uit said:
I was told they are currently working on private labeling an optimized 12V router to support the wifi connection to the MFD.

This is the same thing that the Garmin rep told me at the Northeast Rendezvous. He said the engineers were testing routers to make sure they had the performance for the Garmin marine Ethernet network. He did not know if the WAN port would be enabled, I am hoping it is so I can connect it to my Rogue Wave long range WiFi and use the same router to provide Internet and Garmin network access to my iPad.

Howard
 
Shared Dream II:

Garmin responded saying they unfortunately do not yet have an exact release date for this App. It is still currently slated for sometime this Summer. :roll: Last day of summer for 2012 is Sep 22nd. 😉
 
I talked to the Public Relations person at Garman about a week ago, and was told it is scheduled to be released in September.
 
Well, summer has come and gone. We are headed toward winter and the bluechart mobile app from Garmin............? The you tube version is interesting, but difficult to put into practical use on the boat. Maybe someday.........
 
Shared Dream II":3vgnmlyr said:
Well, summer has come and gone. We are headed toward winter and the bluechart mobile app from Garmin............? The you tube version is interesting, but difficult to put into practical use on the boat. Maybe someday.........

I hesitate to be negative, but maybe Garmin is trying to figure out how to get more than $49.95 for in App purchases of the Bluecharts......or maybe how to make sure we still have to purchase the $300 Bluecharts for our chart plotters when our IPads are connected to our boat's network. :lol:

Just joking...with only a touch of seriousness.
 
Actually very serious - for Garmin. They need a superior app to take business away from the other very good apps out there. But the better they make it the more they put at risk their - much more profitable - chip and chartplotter business. It will be interesting to see how they resolve this dilemma.
Pete
 
It seems Garmin aims to obtain revenue via map updates etc...

RE: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=114005

"Download the Garmin BlueChart Mobile app for free, then purchase detailed BlueChart maps from within the Garmin store located in Settings."

Note the word "then purchase".

So you get the App @ $0.0 then purchase detailed maps... at maybe $9.99 each. If they can get the volume up then it may make business sense and provide as much or even more revenue than marketing and selling their $299 SD cards. The mobile App will make sense for many small boats that don't have Chartplotters but someone in the family surely will have an iPhone and/or iPad... there's now the iPad mini starting at $329 (see http://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/) which has the Assisted GPS and GLONASS (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLONASS) whereas the iPad 2 (introduced 6 months ago) has GPS Assisted. The new iPad with Retina display has the Assisted GPS and GLONASS. The iPad mini and the iPad with Retina display were introduced by Apple today.

As an aside, I note that the high end operating temp for the new iPads is 95ºF and will be non-operational at/over 113ºF. This then could pose a problem for the new iPad users in areas where ambient temps get this high.

On the other hand, the Garmin Chartplotters don't state their operating temps, but they however do have internal cooling fan(s) as evidenced by the purring sound you can hear when things are quiet in the cabin area. This may be an advantage for the Garmin Chartplotter products over the iPad as far as operating temps go.

I suspect the Chartplotter population vs. Non-Chartplotter population is better that 1:100. 😱 :roll:
 
Yes, the business model is clear and it is all very interesting. But, where is the app? Since we are well into fall, the least Garmin could do is change their website so that it doesn't say "Available Summer 2012".
 
The personal/private word I've received is that this App is being used every day, is fantastic and will get released soon and any day now... stay tuned. 🙂 I would expect Active Captain to review this App in their Newsletter once it's released.

I also suspect the release has been delayed because of Apple's stringent QA policy for releasing well behaved Apps for their products. Their frequent updates and offering new products every 6 months or so adds to this release issue.
 
My point is resonably straight forward. Do what you say. One would hope that Garmin had a stringent QA policy, understands the environment that they intend to operate in and would plan accordingly. It is all part of what is expected of a software product company that intends to successfully compete. Let's hope they can.
 
If I recall correctly from the Garmin sales pitch at Bremerton in September for this App one needs to purchase a Bluetooth or a Wi-Fi receiver that attaches to the Garmin chart plotter if you want to transfer configured course data from the iPad/iPhone to the chart plotter. I believe this data transfer can be in either direction as well. Thus the iPad/iPhone would push or pull data to/from the chart plotter. During this pitch the device to be attached to the chart plotter for this function was mentioned along with its pricing -- unfortunately I don't have the details... but others who attended might have them.
 
You need to attach a wi-fi router to the MFD's ethernet port. There is no Bluetooth. I was told one of the delays is Garmin's private-labeling of a 12v router - another revenue opportunity. Given they all use the same standards, it's possible any good 12v router will suffice.

Cheers,

Bruce
 
Bruce: Thanks for the clarification. 🙂

As an aside, I think it would be useful for Garmin to offer a means of uploading course data files generated on the iPad/iPhone and deposited on an SD card. Then, using the SD card plugged into the chartplotter's SD card slot to make the data transfer. Is this likely, dunno... but it would be a much less expensive way to do the data transfers. It would of course mean the user needs to figure out how to transfer data files from the iPad/iPhone to an SD card and when on the boat this might present a problem -- hence why the Wi-Fi solution is being developed.

Shame about the seemingly demise of the IR ports on mobile and PC devices. In its hey day it was easy and no rocket science background was necessary to transfer data between these devices simply by pointing them at each other and pressing a button and selecting "confirm". :lol:
 
Garmin's HomePort PC/Mac application supports data transfer via SD card between your computer and MFD. IMO the application's UI could be improved, but the transfer of routes, waypoints, etc. is easy. If they port the app to iOS devices, and if it were to support data export, there are SD card adaptors available for the iPads.

IR is giving way to Blue Tooth NFC (Near Field Communication) for "near field" exchanges. WiFi is also taking over to a degree, and has the advantage of not requiring line-of-sight like IR. Apple's free Remote application (which allows you to control remote iTunes libraries with your iOS devices, and XFinity's iOS application to remotely control your DVR (from anywhere) are good examples.
 
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