A small idea from an English newcomer: in the world of small-boat safety instruments, two units which would go well together in a single box might be Navtex and AIS: most people would probably find they ran AIS most of the time and would want to be able to keep looking at it as situations developed, whereas they would probably only want to refer to Navtex as a deliberate choice when other demands were absent, or before even leaving harbour. This probably doesn't occur as a need for powerboats with spacious 'command n' control' areas, but for the large numbers of us sailors in the typical 35 foot sloop, power consumption, space and cost are major issues
I'm not happy with AIS overlays on small plotters - it just gets too cluttered, so I would happily have the 'AIS radar' display on a separate unit, like the little NASA (does the job) or the new Icom (no doubt superb, but HOW much??), so we are looking at very similar screen size, button layout and display-quality requirements. Presumably it would be easy to minimize power consumption in use by having the display sleep after x minutes, to awaken on pressing any button.
i can hear the manufacturers sneer: what - give up selling two separate devices? But I notice that you lucky Americans have the CPV350 & 550 combined plotter/VHF from Standard Horizon; we are seeing one or two combined AIS/VHF fixed units in EU (nasty little screens - ugh), so there is some kind of energy devoted to integration.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone 'out there' with closer ties to the developers had any views.