Magellan and traffic. Are they as nuts as they seem?

While that policy MIGHT be driving away a few potential new customers, even that is unlikely because my 4250 came with free traffic for a year.

NOW.....that Magellan has made whatever initial investment is necessary to make the traffic feature work, ANY future renewals, no matter how few, is nearly 100% profit.

The number of renewals would have to get very close to ZERO and they would have to see some evidence that the policy was eating into new sales. At this point, I doubt that either situation exists.

Except for the fact that buying any gps with free traffic for 3 months, a year, whatever is a bad deal seeing as how you can easily get a unit that has free traffic forever. Like I bought, my Garmin 1300.

I just think given the situation it would make sense for them to just sell us a new traffic receiver, or a new code, that includes lifetime traffic rather than keep the renewals at $60 a year, and call it a day.

The alternative is for Magellan to have a longtime user switch to a Garmin unit with the traffic I want and no ongoing bills. They lost a customer.

Not that the Garmin is perfect or even better in every way, it sure has it's problems, and it's on the way back to them because of traffic problems as I write this. But why keep paying anyone who is trying to rip you off?

I just think the paid traffic as a business model has failed and they ought to figure out how to stop the bleeding.

You guys know Magellan isn't Magellan anymore, right? They were bought last year by the Chinese maker of those cheap MIO units. Imagine that, one of the grandaddys of the business, they invented most of it, bought out by an upstart. One that does high volume low prices, btw.

Yes, Steevo, you are absolutely right....perfectly, 100% and if Magellan doesn't listen to YOU they will surely go out of business.

You assume facts that are NOT in evidence. You don't KNOW that requiring paid traffic is costing them more than it brings in. Supposedly they DO have that information and it leans the other way.

Moreover, in many areas, the traffic reports have proved to be a HO-HUM feature as they don't give you any information that is of practical use. Either it is too slow with updated information OR the road situation is such that there is NO GOOD alternate route anyway.

Many users find the feature worthless......and not just those who live in an area that doesn't have the broadcasts available either.

P.S. I have a MIO that I got used REALLY cheap and it does what I need; it has an earphone jack which many "better" models lack.

Recently they've introduced so many models that feature either free traffic for life, free map update for life, or both of those. Exactly what customers like you or I are looking for. Regarding free traffic Magellan was a little slower than Garmin or TomTom, but they are doing fine now IMO. They still have to convince me with their free map update feature, considering that their map releases have been so infrequently in the past.

I completely forgot my 4250 had a free year of traffic. Its just not a feature I am very interested in. It would be nice if Magellan offered the service completely for free, as well as lifetime map updates. Neither of those would be the reason I would not buy another Magellan.

I have to say the Magellan traffic is not nearly as useful or correct seeming as the Garmin ad supported traffic. And I think they are both Navteq.

Thursday afternoon I was stuck in traffic and the Magellan said there were no incidents. So they don't know, not really.

Just got an email about 2010 map updates for $49 for the following units:
Magellan® Maestro™ 3200, 3210, 3225, 3250, 4200, 4210, 4250, 5310
Magellan® RoadMate® 1200, 1212, 1400, 1412, 1430

It seems that the maps come on a SD card like previous versions. Since my last update was downloaded, is there room on the SD or unit itself for personal POIs?

I have a 3250. Thanks

THAT upsets me even more than having to pay for the update.

I don't know the answer to your question; you may have to call Magellan and ask. It seems ridiculous to me to waste an SD card AND THEN not provide instructions for copying the map to the main units memory. It sucks.

For me, that means I will not update my 4250 ever again and when I think the map is too far outdated, I'll just junk it.

Very sad.

Outdated maps have always been an issue with Magellan. I had a Roadmate 300. It had up-datable maps, but they never released any- now what use was building a unit that could be updated but nothing every released?

Now they release some for some units but it's just too little too late.

A fried had a Garmin, kind of a high end unit. He got an android phone. You just say to the thing: Navigate to walmart, davenport, Iowa and it just does it. No maps to update, they are from google.
That, I have to say is the future.

And in one respect, a sad commentary on our love affair with our electronic "toys".

While it is useful for other things, I see "mobile" internet access as a real luxury item. If you figure that you can use the free WiFi that is all over the place now for most of what you need......the extra money you pay for Internet on your Blackberry (or whatever device) could probably buy you a new GPS every two months or so.

For many, it's like an addiction....and some of the results are just as bad.

That is going to be resolved, and ubiquitous internet access is coming. Nothing can stop it, the government sold the radio spectrum and I think google bought some at the auction.

So we are all going to have internet everywhere. The reason we don't now? It's because of those worthless phone carriers. They and the telcos have been keeping us from getting the internet we want for 20 years.

When that is done you won't need new maps. Ever.

And you can bet that it won't be free either.
They have "us" hooked now and the price will just keep going up and UP....until the number of new subscribers starts falling off.

I don't relish the idea of paying a monthly fee to get Internet-on-the-go.....and have GPS functionality. I think the price is too high just for basic cell phone service, which is all I have and all that I probably ever will have.

But I've only got about 20 years left........if I'm lucky.

It might be near free, those radio frequencies that google bought have some strings attached.

If wimax becomes pervasive, there could be ubiquitous internet most places.

The google navigation in android phones is pretty strong. All it needs is better and free (or nearly) internet.

Not even free public wifi as demonstrated by the latest hacker tool.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/208773/firesheeps_a_huge_hit_...