Major Professional Grade GNSS Rx Manufacturers

My friend asked me what would be my first impressions on those big
GNSS Rx brands serving the Survey industry. I have to admit this
question is really beyond my wits. Anyway I decide to answer as much
as I could, and hopefully there are some "insiders" that can give us a
better answer. I suspect most of my answers are either out of date or
quite inaccurate. If you would like to help, please contribute to the
list.

1. Trimble
Pros: It might be the biggest player in the market, and designed te
first GPS receiver for the civic. I felt its hardware design is very
strong, R&D is good.
Cons: I don't know.

2. Topcon/Sokkia
Pros: It is among the top 3 biggest payers. Its marketing and sales
support are not bad.
Cons: Its R&D team is instable after Javad left.

3. Leica Geosystems
Pros: It is among the top 3 biggest payers. Its marketing and sales
support are not bad.
Cons: Its receivers are based on NovAtel's OEMs. They don't own the
core techologies.

4. Javad
Pros: The performance of their high-ends is amazing.
Cons: Their marketing share is not proportional to their tech.

5. NovAtel
Pros: Their OEMs have stable performance, possibly due to the anenna,
RF circuit and tracking loops.
Cons: Their R&D is weak, and produces no new techologies for years.
They buy technologies from outside.

6. Septentrio
Pros: Their R&D is relatively strong and the response to new
technologies is quick.
Cons: Rumors said lots of office politics there.

7. Ashtech is coming back.
Pros: good reputations in 80s and 90s.
Cons: has left for too long. Not sure if it can catch up.

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The information in here is nearly 3 years old, but it's well organized
with detailed comparisons:

http://www.hydro-international.com/productsurvey/id10-RTK_DGPS_Receivers.html

http://www.hydro-international.com/files/productsurvey_v_pdfdocument_18.pdf

Some other possibly useful sources:

http://www.acsm.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=576

http://www.fig.net/index.htm

http://www.fig.net/pub/figpub/pub49/figpub49.pdf

http://140.194.76.129/publications/eng-manuals/em1110-1-1003/toc.htm

Great! Thanks a lot.

Mark

Ed M. wrote:

On 10-04-25 2:56 , Johnson wrote:


You left out CMC Electronics who make nav/landing certified GNSS for
aerospace.

--
gmail originated posts are filtered due to spam.

Very useful.

Ed M. wrote: