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Decline in satnav sales John Lewis pull PNDs from shelves


Article by: Darren Griffin
Date: 13 Oct 2017

pocketgpsworld.com
With sales of dedicated in-car sat-nav plummeting, high street retailer John Lewis has taken the decision to stop stocking them in-store.

Smartphone navigation has become the norm for most users and many more cars now have competent built-in navigation so it's perhaps not a surprise that sales of dedicated portable navigation devices such as those from TomTom and Garmin have been hard hit.

Once the must-have accessory, the rise of the smartphone with its vast array of free and paid for navigation applications, and the prevalence of factory fit systems means dedicated devices are no longer sought after.

So now they sit at the top of one list their manufacturers would not wish to be on, the list of items being "left behind" in John Lewis's 2017 annual retail report.

Source: John Lewis



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Comments
Posted by sussamb on Fri Oct 13, 2017 8:06 am Reply with quote

In car satnavs have a long way to go to be as competent or as cheap as PNDs but I suspect that won't worry the vast majority of users. It's a bit like cameras, many simply use their smartphones but the experts use stand alone cameras Wink


Where there's a will ... there's a way.

 
Posted by junior on Fri Oct 13, 2017 8:46 am Reply with quote

Well if the guy in the photo follows the satnav he's going to be in trouble


 
Posted by SimonJump on Fri Oct 13, 2017 9:16 am Reply with quote

Hmm - 800rpm and 65mph - Either crap acceleration or an amazing powerplant!


 
Posted by Snudge on Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:18 am Reply with quote

I've had my OneXL for 10 years and it's been very good but the reason I would not update it is the fact that I can't use TYRE to plots routes on PC and transfer them to latest TomTom device.

There have been many comments on here about the lack of this feature so how many customers have they lost like me?

I now use CoPilot on my phone and it's very easy to add waypoints to customise the route. Also, on my motorbike the screen is brighter.

(sussamb - I expect you will say buy a Garmin!)


 
Posted by Skumba on Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:26 am Reply with quote

I use my TT 5200 Wifi in lieu of the VERY GOOD (but infuriating) satnav in my car (2015 Citroen Grand C4 Picasso) because the car Satnav is such a pain in the exterior to program or operate that I would be breaking things in frustration trying to tell it where to take me. After over 15,000 miles like this I have also discovered many instances where the car and my TT don't agree, and in 7 out of 10 times the car is wrong.
I have TT on my phone but I don't use it because Mr Plod would just LURVE to catch me touching my phone to shut it up or other function allied to SATNAV. Touching a SATNAV is not illegal (YET..!!) and can generally be done easier, and safer, than the same action on a smartphone.
When driving a hire car, or any other, at least I have all my saved routes and preferences etc. and the ease of not having to figure out how the satnav in the different vehicle works before begiining to use it.


IPAQ H2210 1993.... GO LIVE 1005 Europe 2011, 1005 Camper 2015, 5200 WFi 2016 and TT still can't get metric speed limit info right in the UK. 70mph is NOT 115kmh. It is 113 as my old IPAQ knew so well!

 
Posted by mistersaxon on Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:41 am Reply with quote

Just got a TomTom 6200 wifi model (so I can avoid draining the phone and running afoul of the LAW) and oh boy is it SLOW. Once you are navigating it mostly keeps up but before you set off the menus and so on are just so unresponsive. Now I understand that battery life could be an issue in some cases but generally it isn't so WHY USE SUCH A CRAPPY CPU? Unless it's bad code of course, but with Tomtom how could it be?

The unit itself is big, bright, loud and convenient - and my car doesn't have built-in satnav so this works well for me. It supports POIs (via import through tomtom drive) and also has traffic and cameras for the life of the unit (which is estimated to be 3 years it seems?) and all that makes the Tomtom Go Mobile app look a bit inadequate. And it will hilariously read out my text messages as well, which can be annoying but is generally useful.


<br>
Rich.
Kit: TomTom iPhone WEurope on iPhone6s+ / iPad Pro
w/ Interphone BT headset on a Honda Blackbird (should change this really - the bike, not the headset)

 
Posted by Snudge on Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:51 am Reply with quote

Skumba Wrote:

I have TT on my phone but I don't use it because Mr Plod would just LURVE to catch me touching my phone to shut it up or other function allied to SATNAV. Touching a SATNAV is not illegal (YET..!!) and can generally be done easier, and safer, than the same action on a smartphone.


We've had this conversation and I thought it was agreed that the law only applied to handheld phones? - so a phone in a holder is regarded the same as a mounted sat nav


 
Posted by MaFt on Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:52 am Reply with quote

SimonJump Wrote:
Hmm - 800rpm and 65mph - Either crap acceleration or an amazing powerplant!


...the driver was cruising in neutral to save fuel...


 
Posted by sussamb on Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:57 am Reply with quote

Snudge Wrote:
Skumba Wrote:

I have TT on my phone but I don't use it because Mr Plod would just LURVE to catch me touching my phone to shut it up or other function allied to SATNAV. Touching a SATNAV is not illegal (YET..!!) and can generally be done easier, and safer, than the same action on a smartphone.


We've had this conversation and I thought it was agreed that the law only applied to handheld phones? - so a phone in a holder is regarded the same as a mounted sat nav


Correct


Where there's a will ... there's a way.

 
Posted by WWKH on Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:06 am Reply with quote

Interesting reading the comments. A thought occurred to me what about getting updated accurate notifications of the dreaded enforcement cameras?? I use PocketGPSWORLD to update them and load them to my Garmin Nuvi. I also use Waze which is quite good


 
Posted by Kremmen on Fri Oct 13, 2017 11:26 am Reply with quote

Given that Halfords and Argos are cheaper I'm not surprised JL have trouble shifting them.

Headline 'false news' rules though.


Satnav:
Garmin 2599 LMT-D (Indoor test rig)
DashCam:
Viofo A119 V3
Car Average MPG :

 
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