Welcome to TTGO 1000

[saud]

Welcome to TT GO 1000 section.

 

[canderson]

Anyone want to start the pool on when/if we see this model in North America?

 

[caryrae73]

I hope it comes to North America. I have never used a tomtom before and this one looks pretty nice and depending on the reviews of it I will either get the 1000 or the new Nuvi 3790t.

 

[canderson]

I hope it comes to North America. I have never used a tomtom before and this one looks pretty nice and depending on the reviews of it I will either get the 1000 or the new Nuvi 3790t.

How soon will you need to be purchasing one?

 

[caryrae73]

I don't need to get one anytime soon I have a Nuvi now but would like to try one of these new ones. I am leaning towards the tomtom 1000 if it comes to the US but have heard very good things about the Nuvi 3790t.

 

[mvl]

Anyone want to start the pool on when/if we see this model in North America?

My bet: an entry level successor to the 340LIVE in July.

 

[gatorguy]

Thats' a softball bet MVL

TomTom's taking a gamble on connected services and an entry level $200 range model can be expected. I still don't see them as big sellers here tho. It might be a short experiment IMO.

 

[canderson]

I don't think I'm imagining things when I say that from the introductions over the last year, TomTom has conceded the entire "above middle" range of automotive GPS units in N.A. to Garmin. I wish them well, since that's the only area where there's still going to be any margin left in these things.

 

[mvl]

But 80% of the American sales are in the low/mid range. So TT went for volume over unit margin.

 

[canderson]

But 80% of the American sales are in the low/mid range. So TT went for volume over unit margin.

Problem is - it'll stay that way with their current scheme, and competition at the low end is pretty brutal. 20% of the N.A. market represents a insignificant number of $, and you'd think they would want to amortize the tooling and development cost (especially the latter, in this case) of new units like the 1000 over as many sales as possible. One wonders if they create so many support problems with their new introductions that they can't deal with the pain here. But how can it be any easier for them in Europe?

I've watched what has happened to the "point and shoot" digital camera business over the years from an up-close and personal position. It went from novelty to serious hardware to commodity in very short order, taking quite a few companies along a road they later regretted. There's a reason several well known camera companies have bailed on that market, and why the rest continue to struggle there. They're only making real money on the higher end devices (like the digital SLRs) these days, and not nearly as much as they'd like on those. If those companies further dropped out of the higher end models ... well, it wouldn't be lethal to a well diversified company with other product lines, but for a one trick pony like TomTom, it's never pretty.

 

[gatorguy]

And now Garmin's nosing in on the low-end too but with high-end features. Amazon announced the w-fi-enabled 295 today. The whole pnd segment is in industry-wide flux.

 

[mvl]

One wonders if they create so many support problems with their new introductions that they can't deal with the pain here. But how can it be any easier for them in Europe?

They did say in a financial call (maybe a year ago?) that the USA has a much higher return rate. Makes me wonder if there is a culture in Europe of putting up with more buggy devices.

All the crashes/bugs on the current high end GO units really annoy people on this forum and on the Amazon ratings, but people in Europe don't seem to mind much.

If Tomtom's wants to have the Europeans work all the bugs out of the GO 1000, so a stable device makes it over here, I wouldn't mind.

 

[canderson]

They did say in a financial call (maybe a year ago?) that the USA has a much higher return rate. Makes me wonder if there is a culture in Europe of putting up with more buggy devices.

Outfits like Costco with their "no questions asked" return policies have driven a lot of manufacturers up the wall. People in N.A. will buy a camera or GPS for a vacation and return it after they're done using it. I cannot emphasize enough the problems it creates to have massive returns to manufacturers of product where the inspection process turns up SO many "no problem found" results. Could just be that the European distribution chain doesn't allow people to game the system so easily.

 

[offthegrid]

I'm betting we see the US version by Christmas but it will have some differences.

GpsPasSion Forums - [NEWS] TomTom launch GO LIVE 1000 with v10

 

[aircool]

Outfits like Costco with their "no questions asked" return policies have driven a lot of manufacturers up the wall. People in N.A. will buy a camera or GPS for a vacation and return it after they're done using it. I cannot emphasize enough the problems it creates to have massive returns to manufacturers of product where the inspection process turns up SO many "no problem found" results. Could just be that the European distribution chain doesn't allow people to game the system so easily.

Dead right, here in the UK it is hard enough to return a genuinely faulty unit, in some cases you need to get TomTom authorisation before the store will exchange the unit, we have Costco here, I use them whenever I can for Tech products for this reason.

 

[CynicX]

Outfits like Costco with their "no questions asked" return policies have driven a lot of manufacturers up the wall. People in N.A. will buy a camera or GPS for a vacation and return it after they're done using it. I cannot emphasize enough the problems it creates to have massive returns to manufacturers of product where the inspection process turns up SO many "no problem found" results. Could just be that the European distribution chain doesn't allow people to game the system so easily.

I'd disagree with this. While I'm sure you are right and many people will buy the shirt wear it too the party and return it I dont think thats the case here.

Think of all the bugs some TT's have. Maps too big to fit on the device unless you delete some voices, updates bricking TT's (Garmin had this issue too), very poor text to speech, etc etc.

While you and I may have the patience to sit down and figure it out I can understand someones point of view if they dont want the hassle.

Skim the bestbuy reviews. Majority are good but then you come across...

"I tried several addresses that were to no avail. I entered simple local addresses & one result was that the street did not exist, another example was the address that I entered was 10 miles away. I do not wish to use a device for that kind of guidance.
I returned to store & bought a Garmin... no problems. =D"

Teleatlas maps for my area are terrible. I've learned the TT's common mistakes and I know the roads well enough to know when its trying to do something dumb. I'll generally send in 3-4 map corrections per week (I drive for a living ~100-200 miles per day). I thought this was just the way it was until I used my friends Garmin for a week while he was on vacation. I couldnt find any errors and it would take me down the roads I normally used that TT avoided for some reason. The thing that impressed me the most was how well it pin pointed the exact destination vs my TT. My TT is usually around 1000-1500 feet off. Thats not a big deal to some but its a major hassle if it does it 10 times a day and I'm driving 5 mph down a road with traffic behind me reading house numbers....

Anyway knowing what I know now. I would have likely returned it and bought a different brand. I'm not knocking TT either so dont get me wrong. In other areas maybe the maps are spot on, and there are a lot of features the TT has I really like. However when push comes to shove I need a device that will get me too a destination with the least amount of hassle...

The point here is if you make a product, no matter the price. It better work as good as something more expensive minus features or something not minus function. People will return a 90 dollar TT buy a 700 dollar Garmin and tell you that the TT was a piece of crap and totally neglect the price point...

 

[mvl]

I saw on a financial call how TT was struggling with all the returns in the US. And I repeatedly see their misprioritization on new features rather than fixing known bugs.

Seems like a blind misunderstanding of the USA consumer electronics market. With UK's difficulty returning products, they can get away with deferring bugfixes. Not so in the US, so shame on TT and it serves they right if people keep returning their products.

Tomtom has great technology, but unless they learn to understand the American consumer properly, they'll continue to make missteps like the above and remain with their low USA market share.

I'm still counting down the clock until IQroutes of Navteq traffic patterns plus HD/cell probe traffic makes it into an in-dash device. If it's Tomtom, that's great. If it's not, that's not a big deal either.

 

[CynicX]

mvl, is Navteq's traffic patterns as sophisticated as TT's IQR's? I'm curious if this is something the GPS learns and shares (like TT does) or just something that is integrated into maps?

I think IQR is an awesome feature that virtually runs itself without the input of anyone other then the end user.

 

[doctormstein1]

July 13th already

Its July 13th already Has anyone heard anything about the 1000 yet

 

[gatorguy]

Not a peep. Yes, it's overdue. Perhaps they're making some cosmetic changes or, more likely IMO, the new routing engine and software is taking longer to "get right" than they anticipated. It's been mentioned in more than one blog that the performance of the unit(s) used for the original press event did not perform as TomTom had said they would. In the meantime there's even more pressure on TomTom to get it right with Garmin releasing their new iPhone-like 3700 series right in TomTom's back yard. With some of the new features and vastly improved hardware on the new Grmin's, this is probably one of those models that needs to be right on the first attempt. If they take their time instead of bowing to pressure to get the 1000 out on the market, I think Tomtom can make a big impact on the European PND market. Here in the US, it 's probably going to be a much tougher sell.