Redmond firm charts big future in navigation
Mar 1 2009 in Business of Boating by Marty McOmber
If you’re one of the growing numbers of Northwest boaters stowing their paper charts in favor of the electronic variety, you might want to take note of Rose Point Navigation Systems.
After years of relatively quiet growth, the Redmond software developer is taking several big steps designed to raise its profile and grab market share in the small but competitive world of navigation software and products.
In February, the company released the latest version of its flagship program for recreational boaters, Coastal Explorer 2009. With it, the company hopes to build on Coastal Explorer’s already strong reputation as an innovative, reliable and easy to use program.
And coming up later this year, Rose Point plans to introduce a new line of boat radars that promise to be easy to install and, of course, integrate seamlessly with its navigation software.
It’s a notable step forward for a company that began in summer of 2003 by a retired Microsoft programmer who loved boating.
With the growth, Rose Point clearly has its sights set on overtaking more well-known brands in the navigation software market—including another Northwest name, Nobeltec Navigation.
And the company is further along than you might expect. For several years, Rose Point has licensed its software to another big name in recreational boating navigation, Maptech. The Massachusetts-based company sold the software under the name Chart Navigator Pro.
Combined sales of the programs account for about one-third of the total market for PC-based navigation software, said Jeff Hummel, Rose Points’ director of sales and marketing.
In an effort to boost the Coastal Explorer name, Rose Point was preparing to end the licensing agreement with Maptech, but circumstances beat the company to the punch. After landing in economic hot water last year, Maptech was split up and sold.
Rose Point isn’t just aiming at recreational boaters. In December, the company shouldered its way into the pilot houses of commercial boats with Rose Point ECS, a new program designed to meet the specific and more demanding needs of tugs and other working boats. Rose Point has already scored agreements to install ECS in three large fleets.
So what’s next for Rose Point? Hummel says the company is working on a fish finder that will be cool enough that even non-anglers will find it useful.
daniels said on March 30, 2009
I just installed Rose point coastal explorer on one of our vessels in our company fleet. I have to say this is my new favorite nav software. Something that most people don’t know about this software (and don’t really care about BUT SHOULD) is its programming structure is based off of new modern data architecture / programming. For those of us who have used Nobeltec you often get the dreaded freeze screen or the long installs and choppy operation. Rose Point does not have this problem and it works seamlessly something that is very important in navigating your vessel. To me, I love the features and ease of the software but ultimately this is the most important feature… as far as safety goes.