Next Map Update Pending: Worried You'll Miss That Free Update Window?
Fri, 11/05/2010 - 12:15pm
Bayou Navigator
13 years
This comes up often, especially right before a map update is expected by the community here, but in the Big Picture, it's most likely NO BIG DEAL if you do. As a new GPS owner, you may be wondering WHY?
While it's always nice to get something "for free", squeezing in under the wire for that "free update" really only matters if you DO NOT plan to purchase any future map updates--and even then, it's likely only a very small improvement to what's already loaded in your brand spanking new unit. Missing the window means you just pony up for the purchase a few months earlier or wait for enough incremental updates to justify the expense later.
At 3-4 updates per year, if your new GPS hasn't spent too long gathering dust on a reseller's shelf, any single update gets you only a minor incremental improvement in map data, at best. HOW MUCH that incremental improvement might benefit any specific new owner and where [s]he travels is unpredictable, given the unknowns and variables.
Otherwise, that "free update" is more a good marketing incentive, especially for the occasional buyer inadvertently ending up with a new unit a few revisions behind, than anything to lament about if you planned to use it as your ONLY update and your GPS is freshly manufactured.
Otherwise, we do sympathize when anyone misses that opportunity to get something for free, but in the big picture, it's really just a little bump in the road.
This comes up often, especially right before a map update is expected by the community here, but in the Big Picture, it's most likely NO BIG DEAL if you do. As a new GPS owner, you may be wondering WHY?
While it's always nice to get something "for free", squeezing in under the wire for that "free update" really only matters if you DO NOT plan to purchase any future map updates--and even then, it's likely only a very small improvement to what's already loaded in your brand spanking new unit. Missing the window means you just pony up for the purchase a few months earlier or wait for enough incremental updates to justify the expense later.
At 3-4 updates per year, if your new GPS hasn't spent too long gathering dust on a reseller's shelf, any single update gets you only a minor incremental improvement in map data, at best. HOW MUCH that incremental improvement might benefit any specific new owner and where [s]he travels is unpredictable, given the unknowns and variables.
Otherwise, that "free update" is more a good marketing incentive, especially for the occasional buyer inadvertently ending up with a new unit a few revisions behind, than anything to lament about if you planned to use it as your ONLY update and your GPS is freshly manufactured.
Otherwise, we do sympathize when anyone misses that opportunity to get something for free, but in the big picture, it's really just a little bump in the road.