Following my previous post and the many comments it has provoked on the forum Sail The World, MaxSea answer was not made to wait, coming from Anthony :
Different elements come justify the price difference mentioned in the example cited.First, the taxes are not the same in the U.S. and Europe and are not included in the price mentioned by Defender. Then very important, the card is free in the U.S. and therefore the cost is not reported on the overall price!Rate U.S. Dollar / Euro is used for the benefit of U.S.. Finally, remission applied to our products through our resellers within their decision.Time Zero products mentioned are the same.Hoping you have made a satisfactory explanation.I wish you a merry Christmas.Cordially,Anthony
So I made a few mouse clicks and resumed my calculator :
MaxSea TC $347 = 290 € inc VATFedEx Postage 0.65 lbs $104 = 88 € inc VAT
France = Map MapMedia 359 € inc VAT (in Nauticom)
(VAT 19,6% included)
TOTAL = 737 € inc VAT more than 310 € saved on 1048 € Site MaxSea France.
Therefore 300 euros for the French version, or the margin of U.S. retailers is much lower than that taken by MaxSea on its website (direct sale without dealer) ! I remain sceptical.
le marché nord américain est « envahi » par les produits Jeppensen (nobeltec,…). Must be respective industry.
Le marché européen et surtout français reste figé sur des softs « en langue maternelle ».
Le prix de ce « service » est donc largement surévalué puisqu’on travaille sur une marché de niches.
Fortunately, of free and open source apps (OpenCPN, …) are (or will be incésemment) available with translations. They certainly do not have all the features of an app fee but allow anyone to navigate properly. Only the price of mapping to invest. Obviously also, what about updates to the mapping on countries that do not make their publications available to the public.
One measure is all the delay by hydrographic and especially SHOM standardization and digitization of their mapping.
But if you sail in the U.S. or Brazil, not to worry to navigate at low cost.
On behalf of SHOM, It is not a delay but a deliberate policy. After the experience of 1998 at 2002 for Fugawi, SHOM has chosen not to provide scanned raster charts, unlike the NOAA or the UKHO. The future is in the vector charting, SHOM has put all its resources in its creation from the global portfolio of ENCs charts while maintaining the paper charts and documentation. In light of both U.S. and British governments, SHOM represents, alas, only a very small firm.