Tomtom announces availability of 140/340/740in USA

[mvl]

April press releases

140 = One IQ
340 = XL IQ
740 = trafficcast-capabile HD traffic device

Released just on schedule per the financial call - right at the start of Q2

 

[a.b.normal]

You may have to change your "country" in order to see the April press release .I had mine set to Canada and the last Press release was/is March 18.

 

[davidalan99]

Does anyone know if there will be a 940 in the US. Or is TomTom stopping at the 740 here?

 

[gatorguy]

No indications at all that TT plans a NA version 940. The market is tough enough already IMO, and connected devices are only getting about 1% of the sales so far. Most buyers have been unwilling to add another equivalent $120 a year for the subscription on top of their device purchases (not to mention map updates too), whether it be Telenav's Shotgun, which does give you free map updates, or TomTom's x40's or the now-discontinued Dash. Add to that Garmin's apparent soon-to-announce "live" pnd, and there's quite a few players now or soon to compete for the few buyers willing to pay for play.

 

[mvl]

The EPT on the 940 would be very valuable in places like NYC with many bi-level bridges and tunnels.

I'm wondering if tomtom would permit grey 940 imports to use trafficcast in the US. Tomtom's biggest stumbling block is getting trafficcast their per-device fee for the imports.

I agree the pricing is a huge problem, especially in this economy. A refurb 720 is basically a 740 without Live/ASR, and after the $50 map update (assuming map subscription purchase) it is still $200 cheaper than than the 740 before the $120 live subscription.

I still think the ROI is clearly there for anyone paying a wage to a driver stuck in traffic.

It's probably a bit too steep for the everyday commuter. I for one would be happy getting the predictable 80% of the congestion via IQroutes.

 

[connectednavi]

Won't TT need a carrier to go live with HD traffic in the U.S? Hard to see that happening anytime soon.

 

[dhn]

In fact, the 720 or 730 are a step up on the 740 in the sense that a 740 has no mp3 player at all.

 

[mvl]

Won't TT need a carrier to go live with HD traffic in the U.S? Hard to see that happening anytime soon.

They are announcing live services, so I assume they've got a carrier lined up. The carrier isn't doing the traffic part in the US (trafficcast is), all it's doing is relaying data via the built-in antenna and sim card. So they could use whatever pass-through carrier they planned to use for the previously announced Google live stuff.

Even if tomtom never announces their carrier publicly. I'm sure once the 740 is for sale mid-April, some cellphone techie will do a frequency scan to figure out if it's using GSM 850 or 1900, and therefore can tell whether they're contracted with AT&T or T-mobile.

 

[gatorguy]

They're using Jasper for their data feed, the same guys who handled the Dash network.

 

[amorek13]

tom tom work is using at&t so i think thats what they will be using

 

[gatorguy]

It is Jasper. Press release here: jasperwireless.com/040209

 

[offthegrid]

Definitely Jasper, interesting that they are using AT&T for Work in the US. Those units are supposed to be part of the traffic feed also.

 

[mvl]

Jasper (per their website) doesn't seem to operate cell towers. They appear to offer a service/provisioning layer on top of rented airtime.

Was their an announcement that AT&T was the WORK supplier? If it's based on user's assumptions from experiences/coverage area then perhaps WORK uses Jaspar and AT&T is Jaspar's supplier.

 

[mvl]

All 3 models (140 / 340 / 740) are available at Best Buy, per bestbuy.com

One user (goldengriff) has confirmed an in store purchase of a 740.

 

[mvl]

Bestbuy.com specs says that the 140s is powered by Navteq maps.. kinda funny....

 

[mvl]

My Best Buy store listed the new x40 units as "unavailable", per their web site.

I stopped in anyways at lunch and the sales rep said he's "technically unable to say he's got new ones available until the old ones sell out. He should have new ones soon".

This seems to match the Q1 financial call, where tomtom said they expect to deplete old inventory in Q1 before selling new Q2 models.

My guess is that all the best buys have the x40's in their back room, but are required to sell out old models before displaying them. My particular store had the yellow clearance tag on the 720 (still $300+), and a bunch of empty display spots near it.

 

[Goldengriff]

Was surfing the web yesterday when I hit Bestbuy's site and saw they had them instock online, did an order for instore pickup and the order came up with one store in Las Vegas with them in stock. I thought it was a mistake on the web site so gave the store a call and they had 2 instock, said they had just got them in Saturday.

 

[gatorguy]

There's just not anything ground-breaking on the 740 IMO. It's not actually a web-connected device, limited to Google Local Search only. Current gas prices? Been available for quite a long time on MSNDirect-compatible devices (Garmin, Alpine, and soon Mio and even the cheap Navtar pnd's) and offered by Telenav Shotgun. Weather reports? Again MSN has offered it for months. Even Dopplar weather maps. Quickfix downloads? Not needed by devices offering sif2 or it's equivalent, and there's a LOT of them. Traffic? I might get surprised, but I don't expect it to be much more accurate or up-to-date than standard RDS-TMC or MSN for now. Local search? Telenav offers that already as well. But both MSN and Telenav offer a lot of services that the 740 will not, ranging from listings of local events and movies, airline flight status and latest news headlines, to mileage tracking for business people. Even free map updates in the case of Telenav. Had they added social networking (other than TT Buddies) and true web-browsing, I could see myself considering it. But really it doesn't offer me anything I don't already have between my cell-phone and pnd. For $10 a month, I just don't know that it has a big future. Perhaps a year from now, a new model with added functionality, and true "HD traffic". . . maybe. Just my opinion.

 

[mvl]

I agree it's only incremental improvement. LIVE is basically Tomtom Plus 2.0, which catches up to the live MSN solutions offerred by Garmin. However, I do feel that most of the added live/MSN features are things that I'd rather go to a smartphone for instead of a PND.

Tomtom did focus improvements on the right places. Google-based POI and traffic are core navigation features, and I'm glad they were added in.

I disagree on traffic, trafficcast is a huge step up from RDS-TMC in the older (less centrally planned) American cities, like NYC and Boston. RDS-TMC only has major highways, and any local driver knows to avoid them at all costs during rush hour. The secondary road traffic offered by trafficcast (and IQroutes) is extremely useful and does put the 740 in a class of its own. I'm not convinced that HD traffic would be any better than the trafficcast solution today.

I would agree that this is a bad economy for what I would consider a luxury item for the average commuter. It does bring the value of high-end logistics routing down to a price point where an average sales rep or small business driver can afford, so it does have a market where it can offer ROI.

 

[gatorguy]

MVL, you may end up being correct on traffic being an incremental improvement, tho I really doubt any big step up in trouble reports and their accuracy. But again, you could be correct. Guess we'll just wait on user reports. Whatever happened to the member who said he already bought one?