Garmin does something really, really well. I'd love to understand how they do it, just in an academic sense.
The stories are legion about how they screw customers time and again by sunsetting expensive gear in a matter of a few years.
And yet, its so clear they have the strongest brand loyalty and following in the business.
Furuno brand loyalty is pretty darned high, but not as strong.
Then you have Simrad that can't shake stories on service support that when you pick at them are old stories. But they can't shake the rep.
There is the makings here of a good business case study for some MBA graduate degree paper.
Furuno brand loyalty is much higher, just with a different group. Go commercial and megayacht and you'll see it.
With technology, you must do something in terms of moving forward and making older product obsolete. Planned obsolescence is part of it. You can end up spending millions to connect to old hardware, used by few, and connected to poorly. You have to decide at some point what you will no longer support. Apple and Microsoft do it all the time.
Right now, Microsoft is in the process of one of the largest moves I've seen. Windows 11 requires 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip (SoC), 4 GB Ram, 64 GB Storage, UFFI Secure boot, TPM Version 2.0, DirectX12 or later video with WDDM 2.0 driver, 720 pixels with 8 bit per color channel and a few other things. Basically any computer built before 2014 or so is out and many build for years after. Now, Microsoft will continue to support Windows 10 but for how long and how long will it be practical to use? And the support ends on 6/13/2023 for most versions and 6/11/2024 for the others.
Garmin will argue they can't support old versions and that continuing them is not in their or the consumer's best interest.
Equipment today has a hardware life so much longer than it's software life. I remember in my early days all the blue screens when monitors would die. I remember all the hard drive failures. I can't tell you the last time I had either. Even a simple thing like the power module would fail regularly and doesn't today. However, the software moves more rapidly than ever and that's what happens with Garmin.
Furuno can't take the same attitude due to their commercial base. As a result, they incur a lot of extra internal costs.
I don't know how long Simrad and Raymarine support old technology. Seems to be longer than Garmin but not indefinitely and perhaps even seems that way because Garmin is moving more rapidly with new technology.
Think about phones and tablets? I can't remember the last time I had one die. Generally people replace when they break the glass or they stop charging. However, most replacements are driven by new features. The carriers have also made you think upgrades are free.
In business, we've basically established a 3 year life on it all and, as a result, become one of the largest sellers of used equipment. The average price of an "off lease" desktop is around $140. Tablets and laptops a bit less. Phones are give aways.
So, useful life now has nothing to do with hardware, but is all software governed.
