Unless the development tools and/or Apple licensing story changes for iPad/iPhone, we will not be producing SkyDemon for that platform.

I think we've pretty much covered this topic now so this thread will be locked.

Tim. If you look at forums like Prune and Flyer you can see how much interest there is for navigational apps for the Iphone/pad.



When I go touring in my aircraft I want to take with me a computer that is user friendly, light and has a good battery life. The IPad does all this and more. At the moment while touring I can check my emails, check the Wx, check NOTAMS and file a flight plan all from my Ipad. The only thing I can not do is use your fantastic software on it !! :-(



Maybe the Iphone/pad is a fade and will go away but maybe it will not and if it does not someone will eventually produce navigational software as good as yours that can be used on the Iphone/pad.... then what? I for one would be very happy to pay extra to be able to use your software on Iphone/pad.



By the way it was great to meet you at Aero-expo in person.



All the best



Tony

I would like to get going on Skydemon mobile but realize from the posted messages some folks are not finding this very straightforward - can anyone advice on an easy to use smartphone/pda to get Skydemon up and running with out too much hassle

thanks

Mike

Thanks for the feedback.

I have no doubt that an iPhone/iPad version of flight-planning software would sell like hot cakes, but I doubt the developers would make any money from it. That makes it rather, well, unappealing.

SkyDemon will be launching its own range of hardware later this year. The first device is likely to be similar in size/performance to the Airbox Clarity, only with far more features, greater (and free) chart coverage and only about 2/3 of the price. The second device is likely to be a "basic" unit, priced around £150, with only safety-critical features that "just work" such as alerts. There probably will not be any route planning facilities on it, but chart coverage will be good. Both devices will be tested extensively on a nice sunny summer day to make sure they are readable.

This is all very subject to change, of course, but I hope you can see that this is a much more viable proposition for us than to invest a great deal of time and money on iPhone/iPad.

I take your point there Tim, especially on the 30% to Apple!! But the fact is that the I-Things have munched very quickly into a large chunk of the market. Whilst I live and fly in the UK, I work in the Far East, so travel quite a lot. Over the past two years it seems that everyone everywhere I go, seems to have an I-Phone. In Singapore the entire business community wouldn't be without it. Even my wife is now going to trade her old Orange mobile in for an I-Phone (She already has a Blackberry). So my thinking is, that if/when someone does come out with a Flight Navigational Application for the I-PAD it's going to sell like hot cakes and frankly I think it's just a matter of time before someone does.



I think the reason people in the flying club think it's expensive is because they don't appreciate the cost of SOFTWARE as opposed to the sale of a device already loaded with the software and offering a simple updating system. I bought a 5" touchscreen GPS unit on Ebay from China for £46 plus postage. After a fair degree of fiddling around with it (the very inadequate instructions were all in Chinese anyway!) I have been able to get it to work very well with my purchased copy of SkyDemon Flight. Most people in my flying club wouldn't ever think about doing this, much prefering to buy a complete unit and go from there.

I understand that you are soon going to offer GPS units loaded with "Flight" and if this comes with a disk to load "Plan" on their own PC or laptop and is competitively priced compared to the other GPS sellers it should sell very well because it is far and away the best Flight Planning and Navigational software out there at the moment.



Just a bit of feedback.

I have flown a number of Navexes now with my 5" Chinese GPS fitted with its suction device to the glass on the second Altimeter and plugged into the cigarette lighter. I found the Yellow A/C marker got lost on the same coloured Towns and Cities. I have now loaded up the latest version and changed it to Black and have yet to test it.

I found that the Aircraft marker did not reset when it flew off the edge of the screen and I had to drag the map across to continue navigation. This was very difficult in the bumpy conditions I was experienceing in my Piper Arrow at 3000ft. I understand this should work better in the new version of "flight".

My screen is quite good, but could do with being a bit better to see in bright conditions and I think this is something to bear in mind when you decide what GPS units to pair your software with for sale as a complete unit.

Lastly I feel that 5" is really the minimum size for a moving map unit in a light aircraft but 7" would be that much better.

If some people think the PC version is too expensive, what are they going to think of the price of the potential iPad version given that we'll need to spend six months developing it and then hand 30% of our revenue to Apple?

I can understand Tim's reluctance to bring out a copy of the software for the IPAD as I'm sure it will entail a hell of a lot of work to re-write the complete software package. (I remember and took part in all the weeks that it was featured in beta form on PRUNE)

Having said that, I have noticed that whenever a shop (even PC World) have an IPAD demonstration it is completely surrounded and it is a devil of a job to get to the front to have a go oneself.

After the massive success of the IPHONE, people are becoming very familiar with the MAC operating system and commentators are actually starting to see that there may be a possibility of a threat to the estabilished Windows PC operating systems on a global basis.

For this reason, if I were the MD at SkyDemon I would be working through the night to make sure that I had an IPAD version as soon as possible.

I don't know about anyone else, but the chat that I have heard around the flying clubs has been quite positive about SkyDemon, but when I've asked if an individual has bought it, the answer from many people has been that it is too expensive. An IPAD version on the other hand with it's very clear and nicely sized screen would leapfrog this cost barrier in my opinion.

I would not buy this to use on a windoze mobile, the application is great but the platform is cr@p, but would purchase immediately for my iPad.

I also vote to have a SkyDemon app for the Ipad/Iphone

T

So in the end it's up to SkyDemon to decide. Thanks for sharing.