How make the new with the old ? Navionics knows it ! After publishing geographic areas including a navigation application, here is now an application, but without charting. Italian are too much !
Navionics Boating Complements, since January 2014, The App Collection Navy (iPhone) and Marine HD (iPad ). Also available as standard version for iPhone and HD for iPad, Navionics Boating has the same version number 6.0 than others. Navionics point, on the dedicated website page of its website, that Navionics "Boating" does not replace Navionics "Marine" which will continue to be updated. However, it is permissible to wonder for how long, because this new application provides a very bad surprise.
If you have, Like me, bought Navionics Europe HD, in example, that you had completed by options in-app, like the NavModule, Autorouting, or even Advanced Map (¹), Don't expect to get your purchases back. As in 2010, you will have to repurchase all : charts and options.
The explanation of this new publication comes, in part, restrictions imposed by Apple to developers. Indeed, the multiplication of each app dedicated to a chart area do not meet the criteria of the AppStore and it is likely that Navionics had to give Apple injunctions. With « Boating », Navionics aligns its competitors with a free application to acquire multiple geographic areas, which is much more convenient than having to close an application and open another when the route crosses through two charts region.. So that's a good thing in itself.
A geographical division closer to the Navionics Gold
Channel boaters will be happy to see England's south coast and Channel Islands include in "Central & West Europe » chart, but the offshore islands, Canaria, Madeira, Azores, are absent. A truncated Gold 46XG, somehow, but at 50 € per region, it is necessary to pay 100 € to cover the equivalent of Gold 46XG for iNavX at 70$ (environ 52 €). There is really something confuse customers !
In addition, The fact that it is not possible to recover at least the options purchased previously seems to me to be an unacceptable commercial approach, clean method to quickly turn users to now many competing applications. Nothing can ever be taken for granted, and it would be good not to transform the million copies sold, claimed by Navionics last year, into one million unhappy customers. Because I don't predict a long life for the previous "Marine" and "Marine HD" applications.
As I had already sung in October 2009, ♫ " My Little Business, ♪ does not know the crisis…” ♬, but she could quickly become disillusioned…
[Update] Navionics Marine 6.0.1 from February the 11 February allows to add new charts to the original chart folder. This is great news for this application owners and an excellent response to criticisms above. Navionics is therefore making an obvious rapprochement with Boating, the merger of the two seems close. I salute this responsiveness which takes into account the expectations of their customers.
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(¹) Apps de navigation : the new products of spring
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For me the different navionic chart offers have become totally confusing and the chart prices for the different appliances are twice than for instance using the new isailor app. Instead
of buying the charts for French Polynesia twice for iphone ans ipad I bought one isailor chart, which can be used on both for about €20.
Their price policy is really bad. For the Navionc chart of French Polynesia one have to buy The folder for Japan. Price €299. But in the moment Japan isn’t on this chart because of the tsunami.
Thank you Francis. I also went nautic on the Ipadnav stand. But I mainly talked about subjects other than Navionics.
I agree with you on the quality of the cards from this publisher. Like you, what I criticize is the commercial policy which means that they sell us the same cartographic product 3x if we use IPAD, iPhone and Tracker.
Finalement ils n’arrivent pas au résultat escompté puisque je suis convaincu que les navigateurs ne mettent pas à jour toutes leurs versions. Comme je l’ai dit seule la version sur l’Ipad est maintenue chez moi. Donc au final d’une certaine manière je considère que leur politique de vente est dangereuse pour la sécurité du plaisancier qui peut utiliser à un moment un produit non à jour alors qu’il a par ailleurs déjà acheté la même carte pour un autre appareil.
Heureusement pour ce qui est des informations principales les cotes et les cailloux ne bougent pas régulièrement 😉
Je n’utilise pas Navionics Europe que j’ai sur mon IPhone. Long replaced by iNavX. But like everyone else, I suffer from this company's racket. She already sold me the cards on iPhone, on my RAYMARINE screens and also via X-traverse on the iPad.
An exchange at Nautic with a person present on the stand tried to convince me that each card was different…. We always have the right to take people for idiots but here it really becomes painful. If your comments or those provided by users could encourage Navionics to review their commercial policy, that would be good.
In the meantime, I will never renew the iPhone application if it disappears and I will not access the update of the charts with the Upgrade option that Navionics offers for RAYMARINE charts. I would just maintain the update of my cards via X-traverse and that's it. And if iNavX offers maps other than Navionics for nav zones I would compare the commercial policies of each. Tired of being taken for pigeons.
Sorry but that really made me angry.
If you visited Nautic on the iPadNav stand, not far from Navionics, I would certainly have explained to you, like many others, Navionics commercial policy, which I have criticized since its debut on iPhone. See my many articles that are not always kind with this editor. However, it must be recognized that this company is the only one to have remained independent and to provide cartography which is, in my opinion, a reference for pleasure : quality, level of details, kept up to date. This requires resources and personnel to do this, and therefore significant income. If their versatile commercial policy can be questionable, the prices charged on smartphones and tablets remain significantly lower than for plotters and PCs. What offends me above all is the lack of consideration of their customers.