For the February issue of Southern Boating, I wrote a survey of the new Faria Maestro, a robust, innovative marine PC that the Thomas G. Faria Corporation bills as “a touch-screen navigation and command center.” It’s an impressive product, combining state-of-the-art touchscreen and CPU hardware with Maptech’s tried-and-true navigation software.
In light of recent industry developments, including the announcement that the entire Maptech company was for sale, and the subsequent announcement (reported by Panbo) that Faria had acquired “certain marine-related software products” from Maptech, I decided to follow up with Faria.
What’s the status of the Maestro product, and when can we expect to see it? Is Faria going to enter the navigation software market, distributing Maptech products such as The CAPN and Chart Navigator?
According to Jason Blackburn, Faria’s Assistant VP of Sales and Marketing, the Maestro is available now. True, there had been some delay obtaining certain parts, but those have been overcome, and all the components are in-house, ready to ship.
He also clarified that Faria’s arrangement with Maptech only includes the touch-screen navigation code used in the Maestro product. Faria did not purchase the other software product lines, and is not planning to enter the stand-alone boxed software market.
Okey dokey, then. Thanks for setting us straight, Jason!
