So, Tomtom really has given up on the NA market...

[Targonis]

I asked if Tomtom had abandoned the NA market several months ago, and didn't get much of a response. Well, if you go to the Tomtom site and select USA, you get the 740 as the top model, with nothing newer.

That to me screams that Tomtom just is not interested in the North American market. No new products for over a year with no "flagship" product even from the x40 generation(740 is there, but no 940). No 750 or 950, no mention of the 1000.

So, if anyone knows someone at Tomtom, have those of us here in the USA and Canada been abandoned? I'd just like to know if I should stop following Tomtom and start seeing if I even like the Garmin products at this point.

 

[mvl]

I don't think TT has given up.

We just get mid-high-end, not ultra high-end, and get it late.

- The GO 740/940 came out it Fall 2008, and we got the 740 in April 2009 (but not the 940)
- The GO 750/950 came out in Fall 2009, and we got the 740TM in April 2010 (but not the 950). The 740TM with app 9.053 is virtually identical to the 750.
- The GO 1000 is expected in September. And gpspassion reported that Tomtom verbally disclosed that an EasyMenu variant will make it to the USA (see here)

Not to mention we got the 5" XXL models before Europe did.

So I think Tomtom's NA commitment is alive and well.

 

[gatorguy]

The 1000 may be here sooner than we might guess.

Is the level of commitment the same here? Certainly not. But they aren't ignoring us either. Fighting an uphill battle against Garmin does take more resources and effort, so no big surprise that with an easier time close to home, they concentrate more on Europe.

 

[Michael Quinlan]

Fighting an uphill battle against Garmin does take more resources and effort, so no big surprise that with an easier time close to home, they concentrate more on Europe.

With regard to success in the US, I think a significant obstacle for TomTom is TomTom itself. In the 2-1/2 years I've been using TomTom products - first a Go 920 and now a Go 740 - I dont' recall there ever being a time where I wasn't waiting for some annoyingly stupid problem to be resolved.

Someone said it elsewhere in the forums - TomTom is focused on rapid development of features, but worries little about stability or reliability, whereas Garmin is quite the opposite.

I have no knowledge of what the GPS market in Europe is like, but I suspect that TomTom's success in Europe says more about the quality of the competition than it does about the quality of TomTom.

 

[canderson]

Someone said it elsewhere in the forums - TomTom is focused on rapid development of features, but worries little about stability or reliability, whereas Garmin is quite the opposite.

Having been dealing up close and personal with Garmin for a few years now, I can tell you that their firmware goes through some similar gyrations. You should have seen the train wreck that occurred last Easter. They let out a real stinker of a code release the Friday before Easter and then took a long weekend. Tech support was swamped the next Tuesday morning. It happens. The good/bad news is that the bug was so awful that they had a fresh official release ready in 12 days (a record for them, I think).

I have one Garmin device that has gone through ELEVEN official releases and I can't tell you how many additional beta releases since it was first put on the market in July of 2009, 14 months ago. It took them until June of 2010 to get the GPS chipset firmware sorted out so that these units would produce the advertised WAAS function and corresponding GPS accuracy.

It ain't all sweetness and light out there in Garmin land, believe me. But at least they don't have any requirement for a total stinkeroo of an application like Home3. I can move maps and POIs and the like on/off the unit without any secondary application. Like I've said, Garmin seems headed to a more open system while TomTom is busy shutting the door.

 

[[email protected]]

TOMTOM's Become Totally Unreliable in EU

I used to love the TT solution - Live services was amazing. Unfortunately recently the reliability of the devices/ Live Services and update errors (yes, I'm also an 'Error 1008' victim) has become a complete joke amongst users.

The customer support is also completely stone-age - live support chat isn't that cutting edge guys, it shouldn't be hard for a tech company to offer the service!

I love the look of the new 1000 but will reluctantly ditch TomTom soon as I can't rely on them

 

[mikealder]

The 1008 issue has been resolved by a recent release of software by TomTom, an alternate solution of rolling back to the earlier software worked for countless users, perhaps you have missed this information and are still using the broken Navcore software on your device.

This 1008 issue is mainly UK specfic, what version of software have you got installed on the device - Mike

 

[Targonis]

I still have a Go 930, with no new software updates in a while. Yes, the map updates work well, but I need to do a pin reset every now and then and get the spontaneous reboot problem at times when I go to turn it on sometimes. Just this morning I had to do a pin reset to get it to connect to my computer.

So, I'd like to update my Tomtom with a newer model, but the 740 doesn't have the FM Transmitter that admittedly I only use in rare situations these days(FM airwaves are FULL here, no open frequencies). I tend to go with a high end device, and going mid-range just isn't my style for some things.

But still, no 1000 in sight for the USA. I will NOT spend money on a device that SHOULD have had a replacement long before.

 

[Arno]

I have no knowledge of what the GPS market in Europe is like, but I suspect that TomTom's success in Europe says more about the quality of the competition than it does about the quality of TomTom.

There are many competing products in Europe and Garmin's position over there seems to be like TomTom's over here.

I had been following the German forum a bit until a year ago and their discussions/problems were pretty much identical to ours here.

That said, I am still quite disappointed that I must use 8.302 to make full use of my phone book on the 930.

 

[34Ford]

Wow, I was thinking the same thing when I went to Tomtom's USA website thinking I would look at the newer top dog and there wasn't any.

I like my 930 though. Especially the mp3 player.

 

[Sibir Lupus]

I am loving my GO 2405 so far (minus the lack of MyTomTom functionality at the moment) . TomTom was switching over to an all new design so I can see why there was some pause in releasing new products for North America. But why TomTom stopped selling the 9XX series here doesn?t make much sense as they are such a great models.