Navigator 2004!!!

Wilko · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 17, 2003 Posts: 203

TomTom site is now showing Navigator 2004

http://www.tomtom.com/products/product.php?ID=29&Language=4

All maps are USA, which I thought was the only difference til I looked at the screenshots.

Could this be the new platform for what would be "TomTom 4" with the UK maps?.

Maybe a new UK version isnt far away?

Talkingbollox · Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 9:42 pm Post subject:

mmm.....new functionality in the preferences as well - operate left hand; change voice; switch language.

SpeedCam · Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:15 pm Post subject:

This looks interesting, it appears to bring Navigator upto the same level as Go & Palm products, great news.

I have to ask the question, will this update be provided as a free download in the UK or chargeable upgrade. The US site is showing this as a new product and there's no upgrade available...

traktori · Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:40 am Post subject:

If you go to TomTom products, there's only 2 choices, Go and PDA, and in the PDA there is only Navigator 2004, so it seems like the new versions are coming out. (Although Navigator 2004 is for USA & Canada ATM!) I find this very nice because Finland map has been very poor with TomTom for Palm and I have been waiting for an update!

traktori · Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 8:43 am Post subject:

DavidW · Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 10:53 pm Post subject:

Unfortunately there's problems with allowing people to edit their posts - though it's something the Team are aware of. Best thing is just to follow yourself up.

If I remember rightly, TomTom indicated that they were going to move everything to their common platform (the code that, amongst other things, powers Go, Navigator for Palm OS and, I believe, the SmartPhone product as well). This is why there was no Navigator 3 USA.

However, they'd got sufficiently far with the Pocket PC only code to release Navigator 3 and TomTom Traffic in Europe.

It's therefore no secret that the next version of Navigator on the Pocket PC will be based around the common platform - and I guess mention of Navigator 2004 for the Pocket PC with USA maps is part of this.

Navigator 3 UK is getting a little old now - it released around April 2004 with December 2003 (approximately) TeleAtlas data - one TeleAtlas release too old to include M6 Toll. Previously, TomTom have issued an upgrade to Navigator every year, with an upgrade deal for owners of the previous version (only - so you could upgrade to Navigator 3 from Navigator 2, but not Navigator 1). I have no ideas about their future plans, but I expect them to be similar.

David

geraint · Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2004 10:36 pm Post subject:

If the Go maps are more up-to-date than the Navigator 3.X maps (other posts in this forum indicate that this is the case) and the Go maps are compatible with Navigator 3.X (other posts in this forum also indicate that this is the case), then why on earth don't Tom Tom sell us a licence to use the Go maps with Navigator 3.X? They seem to be missing an opportunity to squeeze some more money out of us here!
_________________
Geraint

TomTom for iPhone v1.9
App version: 8.300 (777309)
Map: Western Europe v875.3668

Wilko · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 17, 2003 Posts: 203

geraint · Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 7:08 pm Post subject:

But aren't they already paying to distribute the maps with Go? Confused

_________________
Geraint

TomTom for iPhone v1.9
App version: 8.300 (777309)
Map: Western Europe v875.3668

Dave · Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2004 8:40 pm Post subject:

The end user license agreement dictates that if TomTom issued a new map update release to TTN3 then they would have to pay upgrade royalties to TeleAtlas which in-turn would incur a cost from the end user, and more of an administration cost creating packaging, time and effort in sending this out. I'm sure it could be done like a normal upgrade fee of around £30, but not everyone would go for it, which would then mean is it worthwhile doing ?

nej · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:21 am Post subject:

I'm suprised it's like this. We use Navtech maps in our PC application and our licence (as far as I'm aware) covers upgrades, or 1 upgrade per year at least.

sland · Regular Visitor Joined: Mar 19, 2004 Posts: 144

Yogi-Bear · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 1:39 pm Post subject:

I would Pay also :D

Why not have a online service that allows you to download/Upgrade your maps. Most people have high capacity bandwidth these days (ADSL or Cable).

I have always been amazed why they have not implemented something like this b4.

They did have a service that allowed you to download certain maps for an online system but i dont like that ever took off. unless somebody can tell me otherwise.

Yogi-Bear

DavidW · Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:59 pm Post subject:

We've had lengthy discussions about the feasibility of downloadable maps in the past.

The viability is a bit suspect - not least as it's not just a case of getting new data from TeleAtlas and issuing it. The data has to be built as a TomTom map, and tested - yet even with testing, mistakes slip in (such as the 'missing' locations in the Navigator 3 GB map, which are only partially corrected when you use Navigator 3.03 or 3.05T if you have Traffic).

The way that TomTom build maps mean that you have to have a complete new map file - and the cost of hosting numerous 100MB downloads is not zero (though is getting cheaper all the time). If you talk about maps of a larger country - such as France - then with all the different sectional maps included, it's something like 500-600MB of data (which I regard as far from a trivial download even though I have 1Mbit ADSL - downloading 600MB takes around an hour and a half at full speed).

Don't forget that when new maps were released there'd be a flood of download attempts. Whilst I appreciate that the demand was orders of magnitude greater, Microsoft had to stage the roll-out of Windows XP Service Pack 2, and they use some very high capacity hosting at akamai.com for their downloads.

Even outsourcing the hosting and using burstable bandwidth, offering downloadable maps would cost significant money to host. Remembering the old computer mantra of "never underestimate the storage capacity of a stationwagon loaded with disks", it's probably not that surprising that TomTom has stuck to posting out CD-ROMs. Doing so is cheap - but building new maps every few months is not. Meanwhile, whilst you may be happy to pay for newer maps, there were a lot of complaints on here when Navigator 3 came out that the chargeable upgrade (which wasn't phenomenally expensive - from memory EUR49 plus P&P) was a lot of money for not much.

TomTom did release some small maps for holiday areas available via Handango. These were Navigator 2 maps, which cost around US$20 from memory.

Whilst existing customers were offered Navigator 3 versions, TomTom must have decided the experiment failed as they were withdrawn from sale when Navigator 3 came out and they didn't return. I think part of the problem was that the price was high for what you got compared to buying the complete "Maps of Western Europe", also you had to have an existing version of Navigator 3 to install them into.

As I said earlier in the thread, though it appears that TomTom are now issuing North American maps for Navigator 3, they have indicated that their long term aim is to move to using their 'common platform' on the Pocket PC. Clearly work is ongoing all the time - the SmartPhone product is getting Traffic, which presumably means that traffic code has been added to the 'common platform'. I've not been following this issue, but I presume Navigator for Palm OS (which is also 'common platform' based) will get Traffic at some point, too.

I suspect there'll be a new version of Navigator for the Pocket PC in the next 6-8 months that is 'common platform' based. Once TomTom have merged all the code together, hopefully they'll then have a common map format across all platforms, which means issuing map updates is much simpler.

However, it's important to realise that all maps are out of date. Even if you had the latest TeleAtlas data, you'd find mistakes and omissions; such is the nature of digital mapping. It is unfortunate that the TeleAtlas data used to build the Navigator 3 Pocket PC maps missed M6 Toll (that came one release later).

I believe TeleAtlas only have a new map issue made available to their customers every three months. Navigator 3 for Pocket PC is now something like three releases old.

Note - all this is written without any inside knowledge of TomTom's future plans. It's just my 'best guess'.

David

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