> I wish they had a non-cost plan (or maybe $10/year) plus $5/text or something like that for use in an emergency.

Given that the outdoor SAR use case is probably the largest reason for people to get one of these devices in the first place, I doubt that such a model would be economically sustainable (unless subsidized by government agencies or possibly insurances saving money due to spending less on large-scale search operations).

Vendors could also bake a free SAR plan into the initial sales price, I suppose.

Yeah, if we conservatively say 1% of InReach users will need to send an SOS message, then looking at the math:

Today, 100 InReach subscribers nets Garmin around $144/yr * 100 people = $14,400

If the InReach were free except for when activating the SOS, the SOS would have to cost $14,000 to make that same revenue from the same number of users. This would surely lead to more deaths due to folks waiting way longer to send an SOS.

Numbers are estimates but the order of magnitude shouldn't be too far off.

They're going to lose the people like me anyway when phones can send a SOS by satellite, so their revenue from me will either go to $0 and I'll sell my InReach on eBay, or they can get some small amount of revenue (enough to cover the administrative costs of registering the device) from me.

Good point – now that the iPhone has satellite SOS, the market has changed, and the pure SOS use case has become a lot less compelling.

Some users still prefer a standalone device, want P2P messaging functionality (until Apple adds that, too), or need coverage beyond Globalstar – I'd be curious to see how much of the market that is, in the end.

I like the way Fi does it, where service can be paused for 90 days at a time. Just used it on vacation recently after having it paused for a couple years and it was seamless. I think I'll end up paying around $30 for the trip. It's a nice balance imo

The $15 a month for the Garmin in reach is a month to month plan. You can get it for a single trip then let it expire for years before getting another month for your next trip. If you buy a 1 year subscription it ends up going down to $12/month so if you're using it >=10 months a year, it's cheaper to commit to that but for most people, month to month where you can pause whenever you aren't using it is a good option.

For me it's the best $15/mo I spend. As someone who is regularly alone in the backcountry far from cell service, it's massively nice to know that I can communicate something wrong or if simply running late. And my wife also has to worry far less knowing that I can let her know if something goes wrong. She also has the ability to request my location without me doing anything in the event I were unconscious or something.

You can turn it off in the off-season making the annual cost not quite monthly * 12

My problem is I don't really have an off-season, nearly all year round I go on at least one hike a month that's outside of cell coverage (not too hard around here), which is why I got the InReach in the first place.

is 15$ a month really that expensive when it gets you the ability to communicate anywhere?

It's not expensive when it's compared to the alternative of not being able to call for help when there's no cell coverage.

But it's expensive if it's compared to $0 for a feature that's already built into my phone. (though it remains to see how long Apple keeps it free since they only say it's "free for 2 years")

afaik the new iphone is SOS and location only, no text bridge

There is a $35 annual fee for the ability to turn the plan off and on.