Euopean Mapsource V8

[MMC]

Just got off the phone to the people at Garmin (after 30 mins on hold...)

Apparently Mapsource v8 is about to be released in November. I'm still on v5, so time for an upgrade I think...

 

[cookie]

what a cash cow

 

[mpriestley]

new roads in Yorkshire are being mapped as we speak

 

[cookie]

i think they should do a bit of mapping in ireland.

 

[Mouse]

Pedantry time: It's not MapSource, it's City Select.

 

[samwise]

i think they should do a bit of mapping in ireland.

From an article I read on pocketgps.com (I think), NAVTEQ started mapping Ireland in 2000, and the project is due to end in 2005, aso it may be in this update

 

[PanEuropean]

Wow, that seems kind of fast - how long ago was version 7 of the European cartography (CityNavigator and CitySelect) released? I thought it was just earlier this year...

 

[ianf]

Wow, that seems kind of fast - how long ago was version 7 of the European cartography (CityNavigator and CitySelect) released? I thought it was just earlier this year...

I think it was around Christmas, I certainly got a free upgrade in January on the unit I bought in the week before new year.

 

[SilverFish]

Defintely a bit quick for a whole new release, I would have thought an interim release would have been applicable for the short time frame. But this way they can charge us to upgrade... I think Garmin may be feeling the competition from TomTom et al now.

I think to a certain extant, we would expect mapping updates to be provided as part of our licence agreement for a period of two or three years in the case of an expensive piece of software, and not have that period foreceably curtailed by an annual release cycle.

Mike

 

[BurnieM]

I think to a certain extant, we would expect mapping updates to be provided as part of our licence agreement for a period of two or three years in the case of an expensive piece of software, and not have that period foreceably curtailed by an annual release cycle.

Mike

Doable

You are prepared to accept a price increase aren't you ?

 

[SilverFish]

Doable

You are prepared to accept a price increase aren't you ?

They're not exactly cheap to start with. I think the retail price has been driven down to around £600 now, but it debuted at around £1000 IIRC.

In terms of value, we are only seeing updated mapping data and I dont think you could describe that as sufficiently new enough content to support a major revision. Unless there is more in this release than just map updates..?

 

[Mouse]

What updates do you expect beyond mapping updates? City Select is, after all, just cartography data - ie maps. Don't get confused between MapSource (the application for viewing the maps, calculating routes etc) which is effectively free anyway, and the cartography itself.

And remember that you are never forced to update the cartography - new versions of MapSource are free so you stay compatible with new versions of Windows etc. If all the roads you want to use are shown in the cartography that you've got, why waste money on an upgrade?

Of course if you are visiting an area that wasn't mapped in the older version (eg Greece) then that's a good reason to upgrade. But I'm managing just fine with City navigator v5.

 

[Ste@SSB]

We have an old street pilot 3 with v5 on it in our van ... only noticable difference in the mapping is the M6 toll road ... and thats not rocket science to work out... now I am sure that there are other differences but having only tested it for 100,000 miles maybe we need to give it another run around the block...