Seattle Avionics Alternative to Jeppesen

However, from an Avidyne business model, I think it makes good sense that Avidyne has selected Jeppesen as their single data supplier.  Trying to work with multiple vendors is just not cost effective or efficient in bringing a product to market.  Jeppesen is a good choice as they have the largest product portfolio with a world data platform.  But probably most importantly, they are used by many business, fleet, and airline operators.  They even customize charts for many of these operators.  These factors give Avidyne the widest possible market to move into.  The larger their market, the better for us GA folks.

There is some thought that competition is good, so prices will come down if SA competes with Jepp.  I don’t think so.  GA is a small market.  GA IFR is smaller.  GA IFR Avidyne is even smaller.  There just isn’t enough business to spread around.  Data vendor fixed costs will remain the same and market share might drop in half.  That is a business model that often results in vendors exiting the market or price increases to maintain margins.  At the least, it is a business model that may result in less resources and less responsiveness to issues.  I trust Avidyne to maintain a strong business relationship with a single vendor and to work with them on good support and reasonable pricing given the product being delivered.  This is why even after product introduction, a single data vendor is appropriate.  After all, if subscription costs get too high, Avidyne will lose hardware sales.  So, a second vendor may not be the panacea it appears to be and may just have unintended consequences.  I, for one, hope that Avidyne continues to cultivate and stick with a single data vendor.  As a matter of curiosity, are there any certified WAAS GPS units that have more than one data vendor?

Liability costs are also a factor in pricing for certified WAAS GPS data, so pricing comparisons should only be done between certified boxes, not portable devices.

I know that some folks find that charts on the IFD540 can be difficult to read and that they have forgone paying for those charts anyway.  There are certainly free geo-reference NACO chart options that will run on an iPad or Android tablet and interface wirelessly with an IFD.  That is a good alternative when wanting NACO charts over Jeppesen.