The market in marine GPS units has taken a turn this year, at least as far as my business goes. For the first time since I've been selling, teaching and servicing these little black boxes the Lowrance HDS units have finally caught up in sales to the Garmins. In my opinion there are a few reasons this has happened and I’ll try to explain what I’ve seen.

First and foremost, if you want an easy to use GPS go with a Garmin. They are by far the easiest, most intuitive marine GPS units on the market today. So it that’s your primary criteria then stick with a Garmin.

However, if you’re a serious shallow water angler and you’re already using a GPS on your boat, then you know that in the shallows, the preloaded NOAA charts are mainly worthless. NOAA doesn’t consider water less than one foot navigable so the cuts into Pringle Lake, Oyster Lake and the Diversion channel, in their thoughts, don’t need to be charted. And, in my opinion, the satellite imagery provided by Garmin’s G2 Vision card or Lowrance’s preloaded Insight isn’t much better. If this type of boating is where you find yourself, then GPS units that can utilize Navionics Platinum + satellite imagery are the best out there right now. With these models (the HDS is one) you can navigate in the shallows using satellite imagery that pretty much mimics the Google Earth view. For direct screen shot comparisons you can visit this page on this site at: Satellite Imagery Comparison This is one of the reasons Lowrance HDS systems are selling much better this year.

Another is the perception, which I share, that Garmin is sitting on the sidelines as the market leader while Lowrance is steadily improving both their products and their technical support. Let me give you a few more examples of the product improvements, in addition to the satellite imagery comparison.

·         To get satellite weather / audio on a new Garmin unit you have to buy the GXM 51 weather antenna / receiver for $699.99. For the same service on a Lowrance HDS you’ll spend $299.00 for the LWX-1 antenna / receiver. The end user sees the exact same thing; you’ll just get to spend $400.00 more for the equipment to work on a Garmin.

·         All HDS units come with a 2 year warranty. To get a 2 year warranty on a Garmin you have to get into the 700 series (720/740) or above. The 441, 541 & 546 units all come with a one year warranty.

·         If you want a 3D side imaging sonar don’t look for it on a Garmin. Lowrance has it in the Structure Scan and its killer.

·         Want to network your units so you only have to use one transducer, chart card, antenna, etc.? For the Garmins you have to step up to the 4000, 5000, 6000 & 7000 series to get this power. All of the HDS units do this.

·         How about running a stereo from your GPS, eliminating the need for another box or hole in your dash. Lowrance has their SonicHub audio system. Garmin doesn’t have anything like it.

To be fair, Lowrance had their troubles in the past with the HDS systems. They pushed them out the door too fast and the first units weren’t able to read the Navionics cards and they suffered from poor quality resulting in a lot of units needed replacement due to water intrusion. Lowrance was hurting financially and the quality and service suffered. They’ve now found new owners and their products and service are much better. And with the recently introduced 4.0 software upgrade they’re actually a little faster and easier to use.

Garmins are still fine products and, as I said at the beginning, the easiest out there to use. If they could get some decent satellite imagery they would once again dominate the market. But right now I haven’t seen anything new and exciting out of them since the 740S. And that’s been out for a year and a half now.

So when you go looking for your next marine GPS, make sure you take off the blinders and look at everything available. If not you might be missing something important that can help you find those secret honey holes a lot easier.