Nobeltec - What's Happening

[coyotewaits]

Nobeltec has recently annouced a recall due to serious QA issues. They will provide free upgrades but will no longer support the free NOAA S-57 charts. I think this is a bad decision. I had explicitly upgraded to the latest Nobeltec version explicity so I could have up-to-date charts without continually paying for upgrades.

For for details of the Nobeltec announcement visit nobeltec.com. I hope there are enough irate users out there who will write Nobeltec and raise this issue in forums and other places and maybe they will reconsider their decesion to withdraw their commitment to the NOAA S-57 charts.

[Osiris]

This is a capitalist world - money, money, money. With the consolidation of virtually all the different sectors of boating into only a few companies - prices can be controlled and raised. Why support maps that are free to the user, when you can sell them locked versions of the exact same charts for several hundred dollars a pop. Simple math to the accountants.
The nautical charts of the world are made by the various governments and revised by the same governments. There are only a handful of private e-chart makers and they are all for areas outside the USA. The original e-charts sold for from $200 to $400 a CD. Now the USA charts are free from NOAA since they were made and paid for by your tax money. The sale prices of pre-made CDs dropped drastically. Now they have brazzenly figured out how to boost the prices back up again - lock out access to the "free" charts by their display products/plotters.
Capitalism at its finest . . .