4 ms·

Most people in the groups you mention probably already own a dedicated emergency locator device. AAPL may very well take a lot of their business, but maybe not.

Most people in the groups you mention probably already own a dedicated emergency locator device. AAPL may very well take a lot of their business, but maybe not. An inReach is going to survive a much bigger fall than an iPhone.

chrisseaton 4y ago
Who are AAPL?
- Jtsummers 4y ago
  It's Apple's stock symbol. People sometimes refer to companies by their stock symbols (on this site and others), though usually more in a financial discussion context.
  - matt_attack 4y ago
    Gotta save that 1 character yet require hitting shift to cancel it out.
    - dymk 4y ago
      JUST LEAVE CAPS LOCK ON ALL THE TIME, EASY
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- goleary 4y ago
  Apple
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
happyopossum 4y ago
> Most people in the groups you mention probably already own a dedicated emergency locator device Hahahahahahaha! Not a chance. Maybe the over landing crowd, and hardcore hikers, but most casual enjoyers of the outdoors definitely do NOT have a Spot or InReach. Next time you’re on a ski hill, ask around - you’ll be shocked how few people have them.
acchow 4y ago
iPhone has shown that people don't want dedicated devices. iPhone has replaced: watch, compass, digital camera, calculator, ebook reader, portable DVD player, flashlight, Garmin GPS, etc. etc. etc.
- goleary 4y ago
  debatable...lots of people with iphones still use watches and ereaders. and for a life saving device like this i know a subset of people will not want it a part of their phone. ...but this will definitely take a LOT of business from garmin because i believe that subset to be pretty small.
  - frio 4y ago
    As someone who hikes (well, it's NZ, so, tramps) a fair bit, we'll continue taking our PLB with us (we opted for a 406MHz PLB rather than the Garmin solutions because we didn't want to find out in a life-threatening situation that our credit cards had expired a month ago and we couldn't call for help!). You're right, a dedicated device is pretty mandatory for true life threatening situations, and we always have a bevy of safety equipment on harder tramps. With that said, the iPhone (Pro?) is becoming somewhat of a swiss army knife for casual tramping: offline maps with GPS and a compass, an excellent set of cameras, an ereader, excellent battery life to back all that up _and_ it can now communicate with the rest of the world in non-life threatening -- but marginal -- situations. As an example, we leave intentions with people whenever we leave ("here is our route, if we're not back by midday on the third, contact SAR"); being able to message people and say "hey, I've rolled my ankle, we're safe but will be late because we're limping out, don't worry" is a pretty excellent feature. We're probably a niche market, but several friends in that community are pretty excited about this feature. For 2-3 day trips, this makes the outdoors much more accessible.
- guyzero 4y ago
  Sure. Garmin is still $5B in sales annually. Which is peanuts next to the iPhone, so you wonder why they even bother going after it. AirPods are a bigger business than that.
LorenPechtel 4y ago
The more serious of that crowd likely will, but not the more casual people. I'd say I see them hanging from a few percent of packs--but the deeper into the backcountry one goes the higher the percentage becomes.

chrisseaton 4y ago

Who are AAPL?

Jtsummers 4y ago
It's Apple's stock symbol. People sometimes refer to companies by their stock symbols (on this site and others), though usually more in a financial discussion context.
- matt_attack 4y ago
  Gotta save that 1 character yet require hitting shift to cancel it out.
  - dymk 4y ago
    JUST LEAVE CAPS LOCK ON ALL THE TIME, EASY
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
goleary 4y ago
Apple
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

happyopossum 4y ago

> Most people in the groups you mention probably already own a dedicated emergency locator device Hahahahahahaha! Not a chance. Maybe the over landing crowd, and hardcore hikers, but most casual enjoyers of the outdoors definitely do NOT have a Spot or InReach. Next time you’re on a ski hill, ask around - you’ll be shocked how few people have them.

acchow 4y ago

iPhone has shown that people don't want dedicated devices. iPhone has replaced: watch, compass, digital camera, calculator, ebook reader, portable DVD player, flashlight, Garmin GPS, etc. etc. etc.

goleary 4y ago
debatable...lots of people with iphones still use watches and ereaders. and for a life saving device like this i know a subset of people will not want it a part of their phone. ...but this will definitely take a LOT of business from garmin because i believe that subset to be pretty small.
- frio 4y ago
  As someone who hikes (well, it's NZ, so, tramps) a fair bit, we'll continue taking our PLB with us (we opted for a 406MHz PLB rather than the Garmin solutions because we didn't want to find out in a life-threatening situation that our credit cards had expired a month ago and we couldn't call for help!). You're right, a dedicated device is pretty mandatory for true life threatening situations, and we always have a bevy of safety equipment on harder tramps. With that said, the iPhone (Pro?) is becoming somewhat of a swiss army knife for casual tramping: offline maps with GPS and a compass, an excellent set of cameras, an ereader, excellent battery life to back all that up _and_ it can now communicate with the rest of the world in non-life threatening -- but marginal -- situations. As an example, we leave intentions with people whenever we leave ("here is our route, if we're not back by midday on the third, contact SAR"); being able to message people and say "hey, I've rolled my ankle, we're safe but will be late because we're limping out, don't worry" is a pretty excellent feature. We're probably a niche market, but several friends in that community are pretty excited about this feature. For 2-3 day trips, this makes the outdoors much more accessible.
guyzero 4y ago
Sure. Garmin is still $5B in sales annually. Which is peanuts next to the iPhone, so you wonder why they even bother going after it. AirPods are a bigger business than that.

LorenPechtel 4y ago

The more serious of that crowd likely will, but not the more casual people. I'd say I see them hanging from a few percent of packs--but the deeper into the backcountry one goes the higher the percentage becomes.