Garmin now says lifetime updates are quarterly

I suspect that Garmin doesn't care when you grab your updates, but they limit you to 4 in the 365 day cycles starting with your purchase date.

For marketing purposes it makes more sense to say 'quarterly', than to say 'you are best advised to download every 3rd release, because if we ship 12 versions a year your access to updates might expire after only 4 months, forcing you to wait 3/4 of a year for your 5th'. Besides, aside from 'software' and POI issues, the actual road data likely doesn't change much between monthly (if that's what they plan to do) releases.

I have a pending free update for a navigator I got - the expiry for the update order is October 5 - rather than dowloading 2010.20 immediately, I am waiting to see if something new is released between now and then.

So if they notice a major blunder in the mapping software..they're going to limit how much of it you can download in one year?

Does Garmin now have this statem,ent on their site? I couldn't find it and it would be interesting to see if you were just thinking about purchasing the lifetime (not so much!) subscription!!!!

I haven't checked the web site but found the text in a subscribed email from Garmin. Its subject was

Navigate your summer with Garmin!

and the message started with

Tales from the Road, Summer 2009

I offered this message earlier not to suggest that Garmin was going to limit downloads to once a quarter but to point out (as has often been discussed here and elsewhere) that Garmin stated in this email that they will have a new map update available every quarter. At least that's how I read it. The earlier and maybe still official "up to four updates per year" has been discussed a lot as Garmin would conceivably meet this specification even if they only offered one update annually...or if they offered no updates from January through September and then had montly new updates Oct-Dec. My point was that it now seems that official Garmin emails are comfortable stating that updates will be offered quarterly.

It says the following:

"Know where to go when streets change or new restaurants and other businesses open. With nüMaps Lifetime, you’ll get the most up-to-date maps available — for the life of your individual Garmin GPS. This one-time, single purchase gives you access to the newest map information on streets, highways and points of interest as soon as new content is available. Then, you can download the new data to your device, retrieving up to four updates per year, for the lifetime of one Garmin GPS. It’s the most comprehensive update plan you can buy."

Says 4 a year. Seems clear to me.

Once again, we're into the "does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?" routine. The web site still says "up to four updates per year" (i.e., 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4), but the email (which I have not received) says "quarterly". Arg.

"up to four updates per year"

aren't you still missing the up to part?

not too bad. i don't anticipate updating my nuvi very often.

...especially with Garmin removing map detail left and right. If this slashing of detail & long-time nuvi features continues, my 760 and 765T will be my last Garmin units.

DorkusNimrod, if you abandon Garmin it will be a real loss to Garmin and to this user community. I mean that sincerely. If Garmin was smart, they would put you on their payroll as a product design advisor or consultant.

If you switch to another brand, I think there will be many users here who value your advice and will follow your lead.

What map details have been removed? I haven't noticed a decrease in any detail or feature.

I doubt it will come to actual brand switching...just not purchasing "new" units that do less than what I currently have.

I have yet to receive one when a new map comes out.

Call them:
NoCluMaps?
LesMaps?
RemovMaps?

Garmin, whats it going to take to wake you folks up?

Keep in mind this is now a mass market product and that people in general (present company excepted) don't change navigators like I change my underwear.

So most civilians have no clue what the system CAN be and are more than impressed by what it does, because they never had one before and so this is a million-fold improvement.

People like me, who cut our teeth with companies like ETAKS and wrote code for the very earliest navigation systems in cars back in the laqte '80s and early '90s HAVE been seeing Garmin decontent their maps, reduce the displayed detail, remove certain (to us) extremely important fatures for reasons that I, for one do not understand.

After all, as I was once told; Software costs a lot to develop, but nothing to deploy in a product where hardware costs money to develop AND deploy.

In my reviews on epinions I refer to Garmin's latest features as being 'fluff'. The problem is that while they've been dressing up the plate, they've removed a lot of the meat. Interesting slight of hand, but it is apparent to the afficionados and no one else. And if no one complains, what motivation will Garmin have to get back to the basics? None!

And the products they are shipping today are nowhere near as reliable as the devices they shipped just a couple of years ago.

Such is the business of mass marketing.

So... what can the system be? I am a civilian, what am I missing?

So show me the meat! What are you specifically referring to?

Interesting... the units I used a few years ago took forever to track satellites. My 765T takes 10-12 second to track 6-10 satellites! Certainly the hardware to receive the signals has been improved drastically!

Maybe they have simplified the user interface, but I believe it is to make the products more "user friendly"? For example, TomTom has a ton of features in their menu, but having both Garmin and TomTom units, I have to admit, the TomTom requires a bigger learning effort.

I do like the way the TomTom simultaneously displays current time, estimated time to destination, distance to destination, speed/speed limit, etc. And I have heard some people say its too confusing! You cannot please everybody!

Can you elaborate and help me understand your discontent?

You are saying it's not 4 a year? wow, and I thought I didn't trust people.

I ahve never recieved an email advisingof an upgrade and I have the lifetime subscription I bought from Garmin

anyone know where I can get the best price on the lifetime maps? amazon,gps sitees etc?

And it seems you can find what you are looking for on Amazon for about $94 to $98 and change. You wont have to pay sales tax either.

Happy Hunting.
Have you seen Drew Peterson lately? LOL!!!

It's legalease... if someone signs up in July, are they going to get 4 updates in the first year?

No.

I see the lifetime maps thing as Garmin saying you get new maps whenever they put them out, and they're saying they'll do that up to 4 time a year.

Are they specifying a calendar year for the subscription? After all, almost ALL subscription based products do not run on a calendar year. Your year starts and ends when you subscribed. July 1 through June 30, for example.

Are you saying that the Garmin NuMaps is calendar year based? Why would anyone buy it after April or so?

Unless I missed it no one has commented on the qualification about the lifetime of the device. If Garmin determines the lifetime your updates may end before you expected. Some of us keep our units like the nuvi 350 for a long time.

...And is the lifetime of the device limited to a certain number of years? or is it possible to have your garmin running for the next 10 years and still get free updates?

It is specified as the lifetime of the unit, with the escape clause that it is as long as they are sourced maps from Navteq. I don't see what the big deal about up to 4 per year is. Garmin's intention is to put them out 4 per year but don't want to be legally tied in to exact dates. If they are off by a few days (or weeks), I will still have the most up to date maps, and 4X per year is far better than the once per year that they were previously offering.

Saw this on buy.com

Price: $89.49
Shipping: $6.70
Total Price: $96.19

There was a slightly better price at another site but I do not know if I would trust them.

Haven't noticed any decrease??

Like I had said, $94 to $98 bucks.

Note: Buy.com has a pretty poor lifetime rating of 4.17 out of 10. I don't believe I would trust your recommendation with that low of a rating on ResellerRatings.com.

Another "lifetime" issue is that as the maps get bigger as they add bells and whistles, it's more likely that older units will be unable to handle them. It's that concern that's keeping me from getting a sub for my C340. If I had a new unit, I'd probably be fine with the idea, but this unit already is starting to be close to the upper limit.

Oh, and "up to four" includes zero.

I share the same concern. I posted this information in another topic:

With each update, the amount of free space gets smaller. At some point, I will have to start deleting unused voice files to make room.

Are the updates really worth it? I don't think so - I have had the 2007, 2008, 2009 maps and there are roads in the mapset that have never been. New roads installed 3-5 years ago and still missing.

I just don't see the maps ever getting to the point where they are completely worth it.

LOL

I have seen corrections in the maps and even on the location of the car when traveling on an access road. 2010.10 had errors jumping from the access road to the main freeway and back. 2010.20 corrected it!

anyone have a clue, as to when the next update will be released?

Oct 01, plus or minus a day is my guess.

Don't know what people are trying to find out. They release up to 4 a year, you get a new map whenever you want. And the map doesn't have to stay on the main unit. SD card space is unlimited

People are trying to find out when an updated map is released so that they may update the maps they have. When users buy numap lifetime updates they can update for free whenever new maps are released up to 4 times a year, not as you say "whenever you want". That comment makes me scratch my head. Yes, up to 4 a year, but certainly not all at once. They have been timely so far, every three months, give a day or two.

I see you have a Nuvi 350, have you ever updated its map? A few other posts you have made claim nothing changes on the maps, so don't upgrade. Where did you get information from to form that opinion? I'm just curious.

didn't mean to upset you,i thougt i ask a simple question? asking if anyone had any ideas as to a possible time frame for the next release.have a good day.(thanks rayzers for the info)

Maybe one day they will figure out how to update over a cellphone connection!

I agree with the comment on less map detail. I have a four year old Quest with far more street name showing than my recently purchased 7200 with 2010.20. Oddly enough, though, the 2010.20 software does show every single canal or lake I go over. Why would Garmin think I want to know the names of all the canals as opposed to the streets?

I am pretty sure that Garmin simply purchases updated information from its source (NavTeq?). The information that Garmin uses is likely very similar to that made available to TomTom and Magellan.

The canals are in the update because they were reported to NavTeq, whereas streets in new subdivisions are not included because they are not reported. My assumption is that NavTeq collects information from various sources (likely municipal or commercial GIS data sets)and puts it out in an integrated format.

I observed an interesting feature that I commented on in another post. We have a lot of oil and gas activity in this area and the service roads to many leases appear on my GPS, whereas a lot of farm roads do not. NavTeq certainly did not survey lease sites in central Alberta, but they are on my GPS. It turns out the gas lease sites must be formally surveyed and reported - so they are part of the GIS data that NavTeq obbtains.

So don't blame Garmin or even NavTeq. Blame the municipality that does not submit survey information in a timely fashion!

I spoke with Garmin a week or so ago. I was told the next update is expected in the Nov timeframe.

In the San Francisco area, I noticed a big improvement. New bridges and roads work now. New lanes show up. I even get traffic now in areas that I did not get it in before, but that is not likely due to the maps.

I like the lifetime maps, but I am not sure I would buy them again. Costco has them for $99, but I think I would just buy a new unit every 2-3 years. They drop in price significantly 4 months after release. The 765T is $279 now at Costco.

Sorry, but I do blame Garmin. They are the vendor I made the purchase from, and are therefore the party responsible to ensure customer satisfaction. I'm not the first to make this complaint (lack of street detail). What really puzzles me is why they no LONGER provide the street detail they used to. How come it was there before but now it's gone? I have also had the GPS route me in the completly WRONG direction several times. In a nutshell, I'm less than happy.

I like the idea of lifetime maps, but I'm not sure it's worth it. I guess it depends where you use the device and how much you rely on the install poi's to be accurate. For what I need tha maps don't have to be super accuate, just enough to get me close. Like others, I'm ready for a change after a couple years anyway.

The issue of how much detail to provide has been going on for quite a while. In published reports Navteq contends it provides all the detail you would need to the GPS providers. This detail includes variable speed limits and lane closures based on time of day. It is the GPS provider that decides how much of the terrabytes of data to provide in their map updates. That is why maps from the same data can be different on one manufacturer's GPS over another. This was part of the Navigon conundrum. Navigon was a Navteq company and provided more detail than Garmin, but Garmin provided the means to add custom POI that Navigon did not.

Displayed street detail on GPS map screen has nothing at all to do with the map vendor and everything to do with Garmin. The map detail is all there from the map vendor...the city names, canal names, railroad tracks, parks, golf courses, etc. It's all there embedded within the map itself. Garmin themselves choose what map detail is displayed on the GPS screen according to display parameters within the unit's firmware for likely the following reasons:

1. Improve map refresh/drawing rate
2. Omit what Garmin feels is "useless" map detail (whatever that may be as they are ones who decide this) or "clutter" due to it's supposed "distraction" factor

See the following topic/posts I made with screen shots comparing the moving map detail of the nuvi 760 vs the nuvi 765, using the exact same map version in both units.

http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=10472#67446

The fact is that Garmin have removed, and continue to remove useful (to many people) map detail from displaying on the moving map display with no means for the user to choose what they want to be displayed on the screen. They have also removed favorite's names and city names from being displayed on the moving map screen as you can see in the screen shots. I for one would rather have the screen refresh be lower than to sacrifice/omit map detail that I am used to seeing...I would like to be the one who decides this.

The issue monteplus3 reported (seeing canal names being displayed rather than street names) is quite puzzling and really makes me wonder what Garmin's priorities are...and if they're even checking/verifying what they're removing and what they're leaving on the map display.

Note that in a rather perplexing move, Garmin actually added the display of cities to the zumo 600's moving map display in it's most recent firmware update...maybe they feel motorcycle riders need to see the cities on the moving map display but no one else should... Well, at least they added some detail back in rather than remove more. For this, I applaud them (but I also wonder why)...

If Garmin's current trend of removing map detail continues, we'll soon be seeing nothing on the moving map screen at all and be relying solely on voice guidance. I believe Garmin themselves have stated to end-users (that have posted in this and other forums) that nuvis are not "mapping" units" but rather "navigation units", meant to get you from point A to point B.

This kind of statement and seeing the steadily decreasing map detail is sadly causing me to look at different manufacturers for my next GPS...but it seems other brands have their own issues as well.

monteplus3,

Please send an email to Garmin about your displeasure about the detail display level.

The more people that complain, the more inclined Garmin may be to correct it.

Thanks !

DorkusNimrod explains it perfectly and even gives us screen shots to show what the difference is.

The "missing" Details we are complaining about ARE there in the maps. It's not that Navteq left something out of their maps, it's that Garmin has modified the way those details are displayed at different zoom levels.

If you are zoomed in closely all the details you had before are there.

I believe that Garmin has removed those details at various zoom levels to make the graphics display much smoother with the screen redraws as the vehicle is moving.

I can understand it.... but I would prefer fro "ME" to have the abiliuty to decide if I want more detail displayed or a smoother/faster screen redraw.

Many people don't know what the heck we are talking about because they don't have the last generation of Garmin GPS's, but if they ever saw what we mean, they'd be unhappy.