...in my humble opinion is SUNK COST.
A comment from the Carlson thread below got me thinking about this.
Just imagine you are Trimble, Carlson, Topcon (not counting Leica, they've not had a competitive offering in DC software or CAD in forever) and you have heavily invested in Windows mobile platforms, CAD platforms, bought competitive software that was originally developed for XP, manufactured (or licensed from Archer, Getac, etc.) proprietary data collectors, the list goes on and on...
They are loath to abandon old approaches and embrace new ideas and platforms because of their enormous sunk cost. They should ask themselves if they could survive against a competent newcomer that develops data collection for an iOS or Android platform (or both), and could afford to sell it for say $500. Another variable in this equation are the hardware newcomers (Javad, Altus, etc.) that have nearly $0 sunk cost in DC software, so they are more than willing to promote others if it sells more hardware.
I thought Google Sketchup would have possibly been disruptive as well, but Trimble had to go and buy it (maybe just to kill it).
Well with the Chineese getting in the instrument and GPS industry. May not be that far off.
In my humble opinion, there will never be a $500 data collector software that can compete with Trimble Access, Survey Pro, or even Carlson. For one thing, no hardware manufacturer in their right mind would allow their products to work with it.
DC software running on a smart phone might be OK for a one man show, but no company like the one I work for would ever even consider handing it to a crew - at least not in its current form.
You are absolutely correct that the big boys have big money invested in their current products; they also have massive ongoing R&D costs. The folks who think they just come out with a data collector, slap a $5,500 price tag on it, and sit back and count their money have no conception of how the process actually works. A company could never release a $500 product that could perform at the same level as Trimble Access because Access has 20+ years of R&D behind it.
There will always be people who are content to go out with $500 software running on an $800 platform and working with a Chinese instrument; there's a reason why the people who invest in Trimble and high-end Leica (unfortunately, you now have to add the caveat with them) are willing to spend 2 - 3 times as much money.
> In my humble opinion, there will never be a $500 data collector software that can compete with Trimble Access, Survey Pro, or even Carlson. For one thing, no hardware manufacturer in their right mind would allow their products to work with it.
There is a lot of the top-of-the-line existing equipment already on the market that anyone could write a program for and it would already work. The only way it wouldn't work is by firmware update. Also, I won't want to buy equipment from someone that "wouldn't allow". I've used nothing but Trimble for the past 6 years. I agree that they have the slickest, most holistic approach from soup to nuts, but a lot of their products are still disjointed due to cobbling together conquered companies.
Also, just because someone would only charge $500 for the app wouldn't be an indicator of poor quality. The speed and ease of writing apps with the developer kits is what enables most of what I asserted.
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> DC software running on a smart phone might be OK for a one man show, but no company like the one I work for would ever even consider handing it to a crew - at least not in its current form.
I certainly wasn't talking about anything current. Merely asserting that it is highly possible and likely. What if by some miracle the old TDS boys came back into the game and offered something on a mobile platform? You can't tell me it wouldn't be better than a 48, and no one questioned the "professionalism" of that platform.
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>because Access has 20+ years of R&D behind it.
That just makes me wish it was better than it is...
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> There will always be people who are content to go out with $500 software running on an $800 platform and working with a Chinese instrument; there's a reason why the people who invest in Trimble and high-end Leica (unfortunately, you now have to add the caveat with them) are willing to spend 2 - 3 times as much money.
I never said $800. I'm willing to bet, though, that on a VRS network you could get 90% of the performance of an R10 ($25,000) with a Triumph 2 ($5,000).
I think you miss my point on a few things...
Not questioning the "Professionalism" of the HP-48 with TDS, I'm questioning the "Survivability" and about 5 other hardware related performance characteristics.
At the rate technology is evolving, I'm sure that what you're describing is not far over the horizon. It will be interesting to see what direction companies like Trimble go in.
As long as there's a demand for high end software on a rugged, environmentally sound platform with an integrated keyboard that is lightweight and ergonomically correct, there will continue to be devices like the TSC3. There's plenty of room for improvement with the TSC3, but we have something like 17 of them and for the most part they're rock solid.
> At the rate technology is evolving, I'm sure that what you're describing is not far over the horizon. It will be interesting to see what direction companies like Trimble go in.
Trimble are looking hard for Android programmers here...
Bruce Carlson told me a couple weeks ago that he as a couple guys working on Android right now.
As far as a ruggedized DC< well I can get an android tablet for like $300. A DC will run you 3-5 thousand. Tempting to get 10 tablets, instead of 1 regular DC. Probably be $$ ahead by the end.
Jim I'm not at all surprised by that, there have been rumblings for some time now that Android would replace Windows Mobile in whatever the next gen data collector ends up being.
> Jim I'm not at all surprised by that, there have been rumblings for some time now that Android would replace Windows Mobile in whatever the next gen data collector ends up being.
+1. I've never understood the exorbitant cost of a Ranger or other similar data collector. They charged so much because they simply could. They recouped the R&D cost many years ago. It's about time that an Android tablet or phone app (NOTE 4) is offered as an alternative to the current choices.
:good:
Yes and no....I like my buttons....dont take away my buttons.
