Would you buy a Chinese navigation software system if it was available?
There probably are systems that the Chinese merchant and fishing fleets are using, however the Chinese have not yet entered the lower end of the market (us).
We had no problem buying an Italian system (early Navionics), so would we flinch at a Chinese product.
There are a couple of Youtube videos that led me to ponder this.
One was an introduction to Open Cpn open source navigation system. In that video they charted the course of Navionics from a reasonably priced user friendly Italian product that became truly “commercialized”. My subscription ran out a month ago, so I know exactly want commercialization means in this case, so does everyone else who is hit with the, “locked out, pay to get back in” model.


The second video was an analysis on why Chinese cars have become so popular in China.
Now outselling and being more desirable than premium German cars.
Sales of the name brand German cars (Audi, Porsche, VW) have halved in the last 4 years.


The commentator starts with the electric seat warmer in a BMW. Every car is fitted with a seat warmer, but they are not switched on. To use “your” seat warmer you need to pay $17 US per month.
Not $17.
Not $17 a year.
$17 a month (that is a quote from the video)
So, you buy a car, you buy a seat warmer and then you have to pay the car company to use it.
I don't know about you, but that sounds greedy and very similar to the Navionics model.

Every car in China now comes with self driving features that are fitted to the car and no subscription is paid by the owner of that car.

I know there has been concern about the Chinese fitting a kill switch to their systems (like the Americans have fitted to their exported military systems (subs?)). However Navionics is already fitted with such a system that activates every year, on the dot.

If a Chinese company came along with a model that broke Navionics (capture ) model, would you buy it?

If you have an opinion, please take the time to watch the videos, so you know where I am coming from.
Gary

It is a good point Gary.
This move to subscription based pricing over a perpetual license has become widespread.
I noticed this trend start to really become apparent a few years ago. In my professional career, this was most evident from the US.
Then the Europeans jumped onto the bandwagon.
There was nothing wrong with subscription licenses per se, they have always been around. You bought a cheap one year license, or pay x amount of years worth of subscription costs to get a perpetual license.
The problem that I have seen is a massive spike in subscription licenses. Coupled with, In many cases, a removal of any option for a one off license.

I have three different vendors I have used for longer than a decade that went this route. The real annoyance..... their annual license is now the costs of the old perpetual license.
In all three cases, we tossed the vendor and went to the market. All three ended up coming back and doing a 'don't tell anyone' deal and re-instated a model where we buy a 3yr license and not renew it. They in turn don't brick the system at the end of the three years.

Bricking the system is disgusting behaviour. I would unreservedly buy any system, Chinese or not, that does not treat their customers with such contempt.

shaggybaxter said..
The real annoyance..... their annual license is now the costs of the old perpetual license.

I bought an app based logbook for work that cost a one off $80 period. A few years later it became a $125 a year subscription. While I get there’s constant costs in customer support, upgrades, updates etc, I was happy with the version that I bought and it’s just an excel based program anyway.

Navionics was the same. You bought the program, downloaded the area you were interested in (all of Aust if you wanted to) and it worked perpetually but without updates is you didn’t pay the annual subscription which was $19. Now if you don’t pay the annual subscription of nearly $100 it becomes unusable.

i enjoyed some hobby CNC work, but I can’t justify the annual subscriptions anymore.


The problem is literally everywhere.

Would you buy ‘made in’ Japan, Singapore, Korea? They were all once the masters of mass cheap production, and now produce some of the world’s most trusted brands.


China produces some amazing quality items, Nearly everything you purchase is either made in China or is made from components in China. It comes down to common sense.

I wouldn’t by a genuine Raymarine potter off Temu for $300.

It gets worse than subscription models, BMW streamed advertisements to the Spiderman movie through the navigation system in over 70 countries

www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/bmw-owners-shown-spider-man-ads-on-their-infotainment-screens-but-not-in-australia


Gary,, you may be slightly insulated where your living in Japan, but China is having a massive growth in the Australian car market at the moment:

"The June 2026 VFACTS report, issued by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, showed nearly all the major marques recorded a drop in sales compared with the first six months of 2025.

Nissan (-32.8 per cent), Mitsubishi (-25.7 per cent), Subaru (-25.6 per cent) and Toyota (-24.4 per cent) were among the hardest hit, while Volkswagen saw a 16.5 per cent loss and Ford shed 10.6 per cent. In contrast, comparatively new-to-market Chinese vehicles registered skyrocketing sales.

Zeekr led the charge with 5825 sales in the first half of 2026, representing a nearly 1300 per cent increase on its 2025 figure of 450.

Not far behind was Omoda Jaecoo, which went from just 690 sales in January-June 2025 to 8808 for the same period in 2026.

BYD, Deepal, Geely and Leapmotor all recorded sales growth well in excess of 100 per cent year-on-year for the January-June period".


Navionics subscriptions drove me to Open CPN, I think its an improvement.

JonE, you are right,

I still have Aust/NZ Navionics charts in my MFD at the helm that are 4 yrs old that are pre subscription model. Effectively the MFD is the primary unit, but out of home waters I use OpenCPN in a laptop on the Nav desk as a check against the outdated Navionics.

The more I learn about OpenCPN I realise its additional functionality, but if I'm confused in restricted waters, Navionics has a far better interface to get the info I need fast.

If you haven’t been to China recently then you should go and see for yourself. Test your assumptions.