The Next Big Thing

[Bassun]

Regarding the headless units, and linking over wifi to tablets.  I don't think we will see a headless unit any time soon.  BUT - I think a great opportunity they are currently overlooking is dummy displays.  Take Lowrance w/ wifi.  You can wirelessly connect to a second unit, and you can wirelessly connect to (apparently multiple) android/apple devices.  I like that idea a lot, but I'm worried that screen brightness, and water intrusion could be a real issue.  Screen brightness of the brightest tablet seems to be about half of what the finders displays are.

 

So - why not kill two birds with one stone.  They already have screens which are superior for daylight viewing, and incased in gear that is "waterproof".  They could easily sell a touch monitor that does not need all of the components the head unit needs.  It could literally be an android control board with the same software used by the tablets preloaded.  They could market it as expansion monitors for a few hundred bucks and they would sell. 

 

If they REALLY wanted to make the public happy, they could amend the current software so that instead of just being a mirror display it could be an expansion to the display (if selected).  Then you could have your HDS Live or Elite Ti2 / whatever - and then "expand the desktop" in PC terms to add displays on the additional monitor.  This would give you existing form factors for mounting, common software to use, and a more economic option for expanding your displayed information.  Buy one head unit, and two or three expansion monitors and you have one heck of a setup!

Going down a different road, I'm kind of surprised that some aftermarket guru has not released a monitor similar to what these units use with a simple connection for a phone to display on.  Or even an android solution with wifi already baked in.  Would be a unique product that would certainly be picked up by a lot of anglers (assuming the price point was low enough.)  My concern with an outsider bringing that to the market would be it could lead Lowrance to no longer support slinging their screens to other devices.  If they choose not to, you would have no options.  Which really brings me back to their monitor expansion.  I would love to see that!  

[schplurg]

On 8/14/2020 at 11:04 AM, Boomstick said:

Well I think it is safe to say we wiill continue to see sharper imaging, higher resolution screens and so forth, but what I am waiting for is a virtual 3-D view that would overlays things like weeds or fish at the bottom over the top of the water when you look at them. That might be a little ways away still, but I would say in 10-20 years that should be a thing.

 

If it's not in development in the next 5, I may seriously consider starting my own company.

The tech is there, someone just needs to believe it's worth doing $$.

[Boomstick]

15 hours ago, schplurg said:

The tech is there, someone just needs to believe it's worth doing $$.

The tech is there, but right now it would be quite expensive.