Navman map updates

shlomph · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jun 01, 2006 Posts: 1

Am I the only one who is a bit miffed that Navman no longer sell map updates for the icn530. Should we expect only a 2 year lifespan for their products?

mostdom · Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:31 pm Post subject:

Hi shlomph , welcome to the forum.

To be honest the icn530 got a fare innin, unlike the icn7** and the F and N's. Navman dropped them all like flies to run with S range which is a bit of a disaster.

Consider holding on to it untill you can no longer live with the maps any more and then get a shiny new one.

You can still buy the maps from the Teleatlas online store but I don't know what years maps they are. Maybe sending them an email might be the next step.
_________________
Dom

HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot

robertn · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 564

You are not the only one, hence the market share TomTom and Garmin now have over Navman.

However, there are enough people out there that still buy shiny new Navmans. From the point of view of Navman, it's not a bad business model to dump the liabilites as soon as consumer protection law allows. That way you only need to deal with the high margin products. Map updates are considered low margin, as they cost a lot to product the first one, along with the required software changes to support the changing data sets, and not enough people by them to amortise the R&D cost over a large enough base. Distributon is a nightmare as they are only valid for short times, and quite high value for retailers to stock.

Internet deployment is possible, but theres issues around cutting the retailers out of the $$$$ loop means they won't push your product- kinda damed if you do and damed if you don't.

Add to this that the hardware wears out and starts coming on for servicing (e.g. Battery packs and screen backlights fail), so convincing consumers to landfill 6 month old products is also good for business.

I admit I am a cynical B(family show here.....) , so don't take what I say too seriously.

However there is a bright side - IMHO the road networks don't change significantly enough to warrent spending huge $$$$ each year on updates. Every now and then, something will be different, but overall, 99% of the road network is the same, and the device will quite happily sort it out once yuo are past a change. Occationally you may get an issue that requires a Mk1 Brain, but not often. Keep the iCN till it's dead, by then, this car nav stuff will be standard on your cell anyway.

Gee-Pee · Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 1:54 pm Post subject:

Quote:

To be honest the icn530 got a fare innin, unlike the icn7** and the F and N's. Navman dropped them all like flies to run with S range which is a bit of a disaster.

Just for your interest (?) or not, I have been chasing Navman for about a year as they promised to bring out new mapping in the Autum of last year for the N range, including extending the Eastern European mapping, in which I am interested. On the 2nd of this month, I got the following when I chased up the launch (if you can call it that) of the latest software.

mostdom · Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:24 pm Post subject:

DeadMode · Occasional Visitor Joined: Nov 12, 2007 Posts: 1

Gee-Pee · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 7:39 pm Post subject:

mostdom · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:31 pm Post subject:

True.

While my 750 is still working and is reasonably up to date I'll still use it but I can imagine that with new tech only just around the corner I will have moved over by next year.

Shame.
_________________
Dom

HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot

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