Lowrance out of the aviation GPS business?

pmanton

pmanton

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N1431A
I just heard that Lowrance no longer makes aviation units. I started looking at places like Sportys, AC&S, Chief, etc and sure enough no Lowrance units available. One place finally said as of July 09 they are no longer available.

That's great, I have a 2000C which probably means it's obsolete.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Cheeers:

Paul
N1431A
2AZ1
 
I'll give you a $100.00 for it before the value drops any further. :D Aviation market is pretty much controlled by Garmin. It probably wasn't making enough money for them to make it worth their while to stay in it. Their market is more in the fishing/sporting area.
 
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Lowrance no-showed at Oshkosh, despite having a booth rented.

At SnF, their crew was not in good spirits. Lots of broken product development promises and nothing new on the horizon.

With last year's fire sale on 600C's, everything lines up for a silent exit from the aviation market

Remember, they are now owned by a marine congolomerate which means the marine side of the business comes first, perhaps to the exclusion of aviation.
 
That's really too bad. The last competitor to Garmin offering reasonably-priced units - gone!
 
kyleb said:
Remember, they are now owned by a marine congolomerate which means the marine side of the business comes first, perhaps to the exclusion of aviation.
Click to expand...

Excuse the pun, but I really don't know how Lowrence is staying afloat? Garmin dominates the marine market as well! The other big players, Raymarine and Furuno, continue to loose market share at least in the consumer end. Then again, the Garmin marine stuff is so nice to work with and easy to use.
 
The writing has been on the wall for some time now. Lowrance hasn't updated any of their products since the Airmap 600 (and that wasn't much of an update). As far as I could see, they never even did R&D on incorporating XM weather.

Was there ever any doubt they have been swirling the drain for some time now?
 
Hey, I would not be too negative about owning an Airmap 2000c. I bought mine for Oshkosh and it is still an outstanding unit for the price. They will still be offering database upgrades as those come through Jeppeson anyhow. I have no regrets and am actually elated that I got one before they stopped selling them. I had an old Airmap 100 I used for 7 years. If I get 7 years out of the 2000c I will be more than happy.
 
This page says they are still in the AV business..

http://www.lowrance.com/en/Products/Aviation/

I called and the lady she says they still manufacturer service and sell the 2000C. with up dates.

I love the way mine works, a 100% easier than the Garmin. both in the car and the aircraft.

The rumors of their demise are greatly over exaggerated
 
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I know this is an old thread - but wanted to add what I just learned (probably old news to all of you). A Jeppesen rep just told me that there would be no more map or terrain updates for Lowrance aviation products. Accordingly, all of us with them (I have a 600c) are flying on increasingly old data.

Looks like I need to find another GPS. I fly VFR only and need to keep it under $1,000 (less is better) - but I don't see anything that compares to what the Airmap 600c offered (until Lawrence pulled the plug that is). Any thoughts?
 
edbreyer said:
I know this is an old thread - but wanted to add what I just learned (probably old news to all of you). A Jeppesen rep just told me that there would be no more map or terrain updates for Lowrance aviation products. Accordingly, all of us with them (I have a 600c) are flying on increasingly old data.

Looks like I need to find another GPS. I fly VFR only and need to keep it under $1,000 (less is better) - but I don't see anything that compares to what the Airmap 600c offered (until Lawrence pulled the plug that is). Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Personally, I'll use my 600C until it dies. I carry sectionals and check my X/C routes on them before I depart and follow my progress on 'em in flight, so the database updates aren't really that important to my style of flying. Realistically, the airports don't move very much. ;-)
 
Ed I think the best comparison for the 600c is the Garmin GPS Map 296. Its a great unit and can be had pretty inexpensively these days. Certainly you can cross check with sectionals and should but one of the real issues comes in with all the changes to ICAO identifiers that are occuring.

By the way welcome to POA.
 
KYLE - Excellent point. No reason I couldn't use it as you described since I always mark my progress on the Sectional so I'll have some idea of my location should it ever stop working in flight - which ironically it did for awhile yesterday (lost the satellites).
 
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