The end of the In-Reach?

[BillMiddlebrook]

Lol
I didn’t say my backup device(s) have to have the full array of functions as my primary. I carry a smartphone, satellite communicator and a 2-way radio. If my phone dies or doesn’t work, I can text or SOS via my sat communicator (yes, without connecting to my phone). If my sat communicator dies, I have the functions of the phone.

It’s what I do and I don’t harp on others to do the same.

[Cide]

One day it'll go the way the digital camera did. That day will be very soon.

T-Mobile is using Starlink soon.

[Skimo95]

Thanks for posting this! I'll wait to hear out the guinea pigs first, but may be due for an upgrade from my 12ProMax. That camera seems amazing as well

Cheers!!

update:

"Satellite connectivity is available to be used whenever you are out of range of WiFi or cellular and need to send an emergency message. Apple says that it was designed for use in open spaces with a clear line of sight to the sky, so performance may be impacted if there are trees or buildings that are nearby. You can't make phone calls using the SOS via Satellite feature, but you can send short text messages. The iPhone will actually front-load vital questions to assess your situation, and it will send that information to emergency personnel as soon as you're connected. Apple created a compression algorithm that makes text messages three times smaller to speed up communication as much as possible. If you're in an area where emergency services can receive text messages, the text message will be sent directly, otherwise it will go to a relay center with Apple-trained specialists that will be able to place an emergency call for you. Using satellite functionality requires your ‌iPhone‌ to connect to a satellite in the sky, so the ‌iPhone‌ will walk you through where to point your ‌iPhone‌ to get it connected to the nearest satellite. Apple says that if you have a clear view of the sky, a short message can be sent within 15 seconds, but it can also take several minutes if there are obstructions. Through satellite connectivity, ‌iPhone‌ users can share their location over Find My even when there is no cellular or WiFi connection, which provides additional security for those camping or hiking in remote areas." and qoute

[timisimaginary]

i choose what to bring based on where i'm going/what i'm doing. there are times i only bring my watch (LTE watch so it can send tracks and SOS messages if there's cell service) and then there's times when i have my watch, my phone and my garmin.
it'll be some time before the iphone satellite capabilities will be enough to supplant my inreach, but i can picture a lot of scenarios where i currently bring both but would be comfortable with just the iphone (and my watch) instead of all 3. and yeah, there are scenarios where maybe i'd still want an inreach or something as a backup, like big multi-day stuff in really remote terrain. but i don't do much of that stuff, so they'd be few and far between. people doing bigger, longer, more remote stuff, i can understand the desire for more backup/redundancy.
i can imagine a future scenario, for instance, where maybe apple opens up the satellite functionality to 3rd party apps so that you could use your iphone's map app to send out tracks via satellite, instead of using the garmin. so for times i want to provide satellite tracking, i could use the iphone instead of the garmin, and then i could just stay on the cheapest garmin plan instead of upgrading to one of the more expensive plans that include tracking, but still having the inreach as essentially a backup SOS button.
ultimately it comes down to the individual's level of trust and comfort with how much they want to rely on the iphone for those things. i usually think of myself as being more conservative than the typical hiker (just owning/using a garmin probably qualifies me for that, but i also tend to overplan/overpack compared to most people i see) but i still feel like, once a certain level of capability is met, i'd be comfortable with the iphone as my main or sole device in most of the activities i'm engaged in.

[peter303]

Tmobile announced recently some direct link upmwith Starlink. But its unclear if this requires special hardware, e.g. iPhone 14.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrie ... ith-spacex

[nyker]

but who wants to use 2 separate devices if you can get the same functionality from a single one?

When it comes to emergency communications, me.
Always

+1

[nyker]

All things equal, sounds like its better than the current crop of Iphones for the purpose of remote comms, but...

Did they mention anything about battery life of the new iPhone? My company provides iphones to us and I've used 4-5 versions over the last 10yrs and I can say that the battery life stinks in all of them and after a few months it needs to be charged twice a day if you're using it more than casually.
I've used an inreach Explorer+ now on several trips and as long as you don't hog it, the battery can last for weeks on that thing plus has better sat access.

[cedica]

Tmobile announced recently some direct link upmwith Starlink. But its unclear if this requires special hardware, e.g. iPhone 14.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrie ... ith-spacex

They say they will be using 5G mid-band (C-band) for that, so any phone that supports it should work - iPhone 12 or newer, new Galaxy, new Pixel, the list is growing every day.

Not clear to me how this will fit into the pricing scheme that Starlink announced last year - $500 for initial connection plus $100 per month for the service.

[martinleroux]

Tmobile announced recently some direct link upmwith Starlink. But its unclear if this requires special hardware, e.g. iPhone 14.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrie ... ith-spacex

Interesting. Currently, to communicate with a Starlink satellite you need a 12" x 19", 9 lb antenna. I wonder how they're going to make this work with mobile phones? If anyone on this forum knows something about antenna design maybe they could comment? The press release is long on nebulous terms such as "plan" and "vision" and short on technical detail. And Elon Musk has a reputation for grandiose product announcements that are later scaled back.

[cedica]

The press release is long on nebulous terms such as "plan" and "vision" and short on technical detail. And Elon Musk has a reputation for grandiose product announcements that are later scaled back.

But "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" on the bottom of the release is darn near bulletproof. It can survive direct hit by $258 billion Dogecoin lawsuit.

[GuiGirard]

For now it looks like iPhone satellite messaging is limited to communicating with SOS responders. It's not general-purpose two-way messaging, and you can't use it to send out periodic trackpoints. It's also limited to the US and Canada, and apparently it doesn't work well above 62°N. It looks like it'll appeal to people who would like to be able to send out an SOS in an emergency, but don't use satellite messaging enough to justify the cost of an InReach.

I don't use the specific functions of an iPhone that aren't available on a regular smartphone (such as a more ancient version of the Samsung Galaxy) enough to justify the cost of their newest iPhone. Neither did I ever intend to use my inReach for anything but emergency (and/or last minute weather updates if necessary) when out of cell phone network.

So, see, it goes both ways. My inReach is new and I expect that it will be around for a long while.

What this new competition might bring is a lower subscription cost to the inReach service. That would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath just yet. I think we'll see Apple charge for service before we see Garmin ask less for theirs.

[seano]

End of the inReach? Probably, mostly, eventually. Cell phones are the mediocre everything, so it only makes sense that they'll become a mediocre ePIRB as well. They are already poor substitutes for landlines, MP3 players, printed maps, cameras, and laptops (who enjoys thumb-typing?). I no longer carry an MP3 player, camera, or printed map, because my phone is a lousy but adequate substitute for all of them. Serious photographers still carry real cameras, no one writes a novel on a phone, and there will still be people who want a good satellite communicator, but most people will put up with one that sort of works.