4 ms·
As a long time user and a big fan of Foreflight, this announcement chilled me to my very core. Jeppesen is the very definition of rent seeking, predatory, lock-
by SomeHacker44 8y ago
As a long time user and a big fan of Foreflight, this announcement chilled me to my very core. Jeppesen is the very definition of rent seeking, predatory, lock-in company. I deal with them because there is literally no other source for the data my airplane’s avionics need to fly legally in our IFR airspace.
Foreflight offers everything Jeppesen offers (other than avionics data subscriptions) in a vastly cheaper and more usable manner.
Boeing also bought Jeppesen a few decades ago- I was a pre Boeing Jeppesen customer too. I feel a dreadful surety that new Foreflight will become predatory like Jeppesen. There were already signs that way, anyway, with each round of new features requiring a “higher level” of subscription with Foreflight.
Oh well, technology company startup costs being what they are (almost nil) I will excitedly await the next entrant if my fears are realized.
PS: Non professional use for me.
- walrus01 8y agoJeppesen is to flight planning software and mapping tools, as Oracle is to database software licensing.
- ryandrake 8y agoIt's super scary, especially because ForeFlight has no realistic competition. I've had this off-again, on-again plan (more like dream) to write an open-source ForeFlight clone, as I used to write aviation mapping software for a living and could probably throw something passable together. But the application's sheer quantity of high quality features makes the project super-daunting. It's unrealistic to believe that a group of amateurs without a budget could even come close to replicating it.
- jacobreg 8y agoI've heard Garmin pilot stacks up reasonably well
- sitkack 8y agoAll two party competitive games become duopolies.
- blktiger 8y agoI doubt this will impact the costs of Foreflight. There is already competition in this space in the form of Garmin Pilot, WingX, and Fltplan Go.