You know it worries me when something is still in production and about the only place selling them is ebay!
You know it worries me when something is still in production and about the only place selling them is ebay!
Fair call!!
Im now starting to look at the Garmin 298.
Northstar branding replaces Navman branding ... Both Navman & Northstar are owned by Brunswick Corporation, a USA based company. Brunswick also manufactures various boat lines in the USA which they outfit with Northstar / Navman components. In order to create visual consistency on their boats, they are branding all marine electronics in the USA with Northstar labels rather than Navman as of Jan 2007. These units are still manufactured in New Zealand and are identical in every regard to the Navman units except for the colour of the buttons (grey instead of blue) and the model numbers. Navman branding will continue to be used for auto navigation in the USA and for marine electronics in Australia.
Hi Kerry this was taken from a web site..???
Interesting!
navman, are you getting it from o/s
Snelly,Originally Posted by snelly1971
FYI Brunswick does not own Navman or Northstar, both are owned by Navico. Navico also own Lowrance, Eagle, B&G, Simrad as well as Navman and Northstar so I doubt anything Brunswick has to say about Navman or Northstar may no longer be valid? Navico is a company based in Norway.
Regards, Kerry.
Thanks Kerry....all to bloody confusing for me....I will stick to the brands i know...eg...furuno/ garmin/ raymarine....The info i posted was taken from a web site...if you are interested in reading then send me your email address and i will give you the page information......Cheers Mick
It appears that all the facts are in this thread albeit in bit's and pieces. I have just spent the last half 'n hour reading about the Navico Brunswick New Technoligies buy out on another forum and this link (see below) to the Navico website will explain. It appears that the deal only went through last week! Navman and Northstar became joined at the hip a few years ago when Brunswick purchased Navman. It was a great pity that the Northstar R&D appeared to be the one to have fallen over as the Northstar brand has taken on the Navman identity. Until recent years Northstar was probably the most respected plotter in the US market. It's development was closley tied to the commercial brand MX Marine, builders of commercial quality and very reliable GPS and DGPS products that still serves on many Naval and commercial vessels. So now that Navico (already owners of the brands: Eagle, Lowrance, Simrad Yachting and B&G) now add Navman, Northstar and MX Marine to their product range. It will be very interesting to see how one company manages a number of brands all competing for the same end of the market. Let's face it, Raymarine, JRC, Furuno and Koden all have their "fan base" so who will grow and who will shrink! It will also be interesting to see if all these brands will be distributed in Australia by the same distributor.........errrr which hat do I wear today?http://www.navico.com/viewPress.php?id=6
Last edited by John Martin; 18-02-2007 at 11:28 PM.
Bloody hell... This isnt making my choice for a new sounder/combo any easier boys!
What Brunswick had in place is obviously not going to change in the short term but one would suspect that Navico might have a different outlook to that of Brunswick.
Brunswick might know something about building boats but I think they lost it completely with the electronics. It must be saying something to offload BNT less than the book value, supposedly a loss of at least 70 million?
Regards, Kerry.
Company buy-outs..........these things happen and normally without much warning. This makes me wonder if Navico will honour the 5 year fixed price repair that was the result of Navman selling so many units here in Australia..........me included! In one of the reports I read that Brusnwick said that marine electronics was not a core business of theirs.........funny how a business that starts loosing money is no longer core business. A few years ago Brunswick could not part with their cash quick enough to buy Navman and now thay have sold it at a loss ($70M) and even had to sweaten the deal by entering into a contract with Navico to fit Navman gear to their factory boats.
Last edited by John Martin; 19-02-2007 at 12:51 PM.
John,
How do know that the Northstar R&D team has gone?
Well the other interesting thing is, where does this now leave the ACCC with the case against Navman?
Steve, as we all know, the new range of Northstar is simply rebadged Navman and to the best of my knowledge there is nothing representative of Northstar as we know it (knew it). Also all Navman and Northstar products ship from NZ which is the Navman base. I would think that the idea of Brusnwick consolidating the two brands would be for effeciency and cost savings but still using the brand name (Northstar) of a well respected and trusted brand. Maybe I have made the wrong assumption? Do you know if the Northstar R&D team are still part of the group and if so do you think they would have been part and parcel of the sale to Navico? It all makes for pretty interesting reading and discussion.
cheers
John
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