Foreflight being acquired by Boeing

[BMC_Dave]

Blog post from SA pretty much sums it up: https://seattleavionics.wordpress.co...of-foreflight/

[JonJay]

Congrats to the owners who had an idea, developed a business, and realized the American dream.

In my business life, I represented an independent company that sold out to a ?big boy?. I called and congratulated the founder. He was shocked. He told me he had received threats, hate mail, and was treated rudely by many. ?How dare you do this to us,?
I was the only one who congratulated him. He didn?t quite know what to say other than he was doing what he felt best for himself, his family, his employees and his company.

I will now return you to the speculators.....

[BMC_Dave]

Originally Posted by JonJay

Congrats to the owners who had an idea, developed a business, and realized the American dream.

In my business life, I represented an independent company that sold out to a “big boy”. I called and congratulated the founder. He was shocked. He told me he had received threats, hate mail, and was treated rudely by many. “How dare you do this to us,”
I was the only one who congratulated him. He didn’t quite know what to say other than he was doing what he felt best for himself, his family, his employees and his company.

I will now return you to the speculators.....

Zero replies so far indicative of the behavior he apparently endured. Comments seem focused on how this may affect the many users of this product. Is your story relevant for any reason other then trying to shame? I think most of us here understand how business works so... thanks?

[JonJay]

Originally Posted by BMC_Dave

Zero replies so far indicative of the behavior he apparently endured. Comments seem focused on how this may affect the many users of this product. Is your story relevant for any reason other then trying to shame? I think most of us here understand how business works so... thanks?

Wasn?t my intent. Sorry it was taken that way.

[topgun4008]

Originally Posted by lr172

That is a meaningful input, however, it becomes irrelevant the the day the new bosses show up. Current team will have no input on future direction. Boeing likely is buying the technology and not the marketshare. I don't see Boeing as a player in serving the GA marketplace. I see them revamping and selling subscriptions to the commercial carriers. It's possible they leave the current product alone and harvest subscription revenue to offset costs. However, over time lack of GA development and cut back support will send customers to the next guy in line. I suspect Garmin views this as an opportunity to invest more in their Pilot and grab the cast offs.

Larry

If Garmin were to open Garmin Pilot up so that you could use outside hardware (Stratus, Stratux, etc.) for ADSB, GPS, and AHRS, I would imagine they would really open up the amount of people willing to change over.

That was the biggest factor for me when I was looking at EFB's. The fact that I could build my own Stratux for under $200 and have all the thing I wanted, instead of shelling out $500+ just in hardware. I would have gone with Garmin Pilot otherwise.

[BCP Boys]

Good for the founders. Unfortunately they won?t have any say so on what happens to that great product and it will die.

[JonJay]

Originally Posted by BCP Boys

Good for the founders. Unfortunately they won?t have any say so on what happens to that great product and it will die.

Well, again speculation. We don?t know the details of the acquisition nor is Boeing obligated to say. The small companies I have been involved with that have been acquired typically keep past owners involved with earn out incentives.
However, history is on your side and you may be right. We shall see.

[airguy]

Seattle Avionics is offering $100 off the first year subscription to anyone who "upgrades" from Foreflight to FlyQ, they are smelling blood in the water.

[JCSmith]

I?m glad I stayed with WingX

[xblueh2o]

Originally Posted by BMC_Dave

Blog post from SA pretty much sums it up: https://seattleavionics.wordpress.co...of-foreflight/

Regarding the SA blog post and the comment that there has been no innovation from Jepp since the Boeing purchase. That just isn't so. How do I know? Jepp sent a bunch of their software engineers (post Boeing purchase) to our company to meet with our flight crews and learn how we used Mobile FD out in the real world. They had beta versions of proposed software that we played with and provided feedback. They asked a ton of questions, shot video of how the crews interacted with the beta software etc etc etc. Lots of the stuff we saw made it in to later updates of Mobile FD. Don't misunderstand me, I think Boeing has some room to improve their customer service but to categorically state this will be the end of Foreflight for lack of innovation is a bit of an overstatement.