Since announcing the marine electronics survey on Feb. 8, and showing a bit of data last week, nearly 800 boaters have taken the time to fill one out. Thank you so much! That's a decent data set, I'm told, but 1,000 would be even better. So, by way of encouragement, MTA has again done a little data digging, seen above and below...
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.
Instead of being "released" in Miami last week, my poor cranium got stuffed to the cobwebbed rafters. Admittedly, there is a phenomenon whereby the longer I cover marine electronics, the better I get to know the developers 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 examples today, but it may take weeks to detail all the goodness I saw at the show...
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 really use some help from such specialists. That's why I'm very pleased to introduce a new company called Marine Technology Advisors, whose entire focus is market intelligence. And I'm super pleased to add that Panbo is involved, and that you -- the readers of Panbo -- can really help. It's a win-win-win situation, I think, and I'm excited. You can read more details below, or just dive right into MTA's first Panbo marine electronics survey.
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 Wednesday...
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...
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!
Heads are still being scratched. Why would SigNet S.A. -- the French holding company that owns MaxSea and MapMedia, and is itself 48% owned by Furuno -- buy Jeppesen's Nobeltec division? And what does this mean for VNS and Admiral users, and marine electronics? I got to talk with all the companies involved yesterday, and am optimistic that Nobeltec customers will benefit from this deal, at least in the short term, and agree with many that the overall possibilities are, um, "interesting"...
The 2008 NMEA Convention in San Diego prompted many Panbo entries last October, and I'm hoping the return to Fort Myers this year will be at least as interesting. One new feature of note is a Technology Award that will be judged by yours truly and three other BWI boating writers. The criteria will be "a combination of innovative design, benefits to boaters, practicality and value," and the NMEA has wisely chosen to limit manufacturer entries to products that were not available for sale and delivery sixty days before the 2008 convention but are available sixty days before this show. In other words, no vaporware please!
This is starting to get serious! While this Reuters article also notes Garmin's disclaimer that "there was no certainty an offer would be made", yesterday Garmin had no comment at all. Personally I have no knowledge of this deal whatsoever, and can tell you that the product people I know at both these companies seem to be full speed ahead. But I'm starting to monitor the financial news closely. Somewhat strangely, the most complete and original reporting seems to be coming from a Reuter's guy in Bangalore, India; his piece yesterday helped me understand why this acquisition might make sense for Garmin: Foreign distribution and an "OEM footprint" (in case the boatbuilding business ever comes back to life). But how would the product lines be "rationalized" and what would a big Garmin/Raymarine combination mean to the relatively little recreational marine electronics industry? Let's discuss.
