Wouldn't that be an issue for ACR and McMurdo? They make and market PLB's and EPIRB's. Seems to me that SPOT needs to catch up and they're being a bit opportunistic with this incident -- ACR and McMurdo could have done the same but apparently chose not to do so.

Of the two systems though, isn't the communications satellite system used by SPOT less robust/reliable? It definitely has less geo coverage and that alone sold me on a real PLB.

Full size map at globalcomsatphone.com spot_map
Note that according to this map there is no (zip, zero, nada) coverage in Hawaii. That's the deal breaker for me. Also, no coverage in Africa south of the equator nor much of India (not a big deal for me, but for others it could be critical).

Les Stroud is a good pitchman though.