Palm GPS Navigator Kit Price Reduction
Palm's most recent GPS bundle, the Palm GPS Navigator with Garmin XT software, has just received a new temporary price reduction. Palm's newest GPS solution debuted late last year with a $249 MSRP but has almost always been promoted with a mail-in rebate and/or temporary sale pricing since its release. To the best of my knowledge, the current sale pricing of $159.99 before a $20 mail-in rebate is this product's lowest price thus far.
Unlike the earlier Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone packages, Palm ships this bundle's with Garmin's Mobile XT software standard. TomTom has apparently ceased development of PDA and smartphone-based navigation solutions to focus on its dedicated and standalone GPS solutions. The Garmin software is provided on the bundled 2GB microSD card with adapters for full-size SD as well as miniSD.
Palm might want to consider making this a permanent MSRP reduction, especially in the face of the fiercely competitive personal navigation device market. Generic standalone units have now hit $100, with solid name-brand offerings available from the likes of Magellan, Garmin, and TomTom in the $150 neighborhood. So there is no longer any major financial incentive to stick with a sometimes-unreliable Bluetooth GPS module paired to a PDA or smartphone versus a dedicated navigation unit with a larger screen and louder speaker volume. Coincidentally, the few compelling reasons to still use a smartphone for GPS duty would be integration with one's contact list or online connectivity for downloading POIs or current gas prices, and the Garmin XT software offers these features in addition to a number of other wireless data services.
Palm mentions the Centro as well as the Treo 680, 700p, 700w/wx, 750, and 755p as the only devices compatible with this new GPS kit, so owners of Palm OS handhelds appear to again be out of luck with a new product release. Also of interest is the fact that this and the subscription-based TeleNav are the only Palm OS navigation software solutions officially certified for use on the Centro.
While I have not yet spent any hands-on time with Garmin's Palm OS navigation software, reports from elsewhere online are that it is quite stable and user-friendly, with some users preferring it over the superb TomTom Navigator. My review of the previous Palm GPS bundle can be found here with a review of the final Palm OS version of the TomTom software is here.
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RE: Reference?
Somewhere last year-GPS Passion forums or Engadget, most likely-this was actually stated by a TT spokesperson.
While the MAY have not officially EOL'd anything, they've not released any new updates for either WM or Palm OS TT solutions. Palm also never certified its two newest POS smartphones (755p & Centro) to OFFICIALLY work with any of their TT-based GPS packages and instead came out with this new bundle featuring the same hardware but software by Garmin.
So I think it's pretty safe to say TT are focusing on dedicated standalone nav systems, especially with the recent report that TT's profits are way down from a year ago.
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Reference?
"TomTom has apparently ceased development of PDA and smartphone-based navigation solutions to focus on its dedicated and standalone GPS solutions."
Do you have a reference for this?
I am considering purchasing the DVD of TTN6 (already have a BT GPS). If it is to be without future updates, or an orphan product with only very rare updates and no support, I would like to know.