New Route Planner and Navigation Next?

[the woodster]

As a Gold Route Planner and Navigation Next member, I have received information about becoming a Beta tester for what appear to be two enhanced products, based on the above. When I pressed the button to enrol as a Beta tester, I was invited to pay more money (See below).



Can anyone who also received this email confirm that although I am being bit thick, it does appear to be the case that they will be offering four products in the future and that my lifetime Gold thingy won't cover the two 'new' ones?

Cheers.

 

[Berin]

I haven’t and I’m lifetime Gold also. I’ll be a bit dischuffed if lifetime gold means lifetime for a product they are going to deprecate.

 

[Arsey]

As a Gold Route Planner and Navigation Next member, I have received information about becoming a Beta tester for what appear to be two enhanced products, based on the above. When I pressed the button to enrol as a Beta tester, I was invited to pay more money (See below).

View attachment 541417

Can anyone who also received this email confirm that although I am being bit thick, it does appear to be the case that they will be offering four products in the future and that my lifetime Gold thingy won't cover the two 'new' ones?

Cheers.

I got the same email.
The way I read it is they are going to replace Routeplanner with Routeplanner Next .
You can pay for early access or just wait and get it for free when it’s on general release.
I certainly won’t bother but I’m sure many GS riders will sign up as they just love being beta testers and paying for the privilege!

 

[the woodster]

I haven’t and I’m lifetime Gold also. I’ll be a bit dischuffed if lifetime gold means lifetime for a product they are going to deprecate.

I'm with you completely. I was an early adopter because I could see the potential and got 'lifetime', admittedly for a good price but it raises the capital for development. I'll send an enquiry to them and see what they say and post the response.

 

[the woodster]

I got the same email.
The way I read it is they are going to replace Routeplanner with Routeplanner Next .
You can pay for early access or just wait and get it for free when it’s on general release.
I certainly won’t bother but I’m sure many GS riders will sign up as they just love being beta testers and paying for the privilege!

OK, thanks. A different reading from mine. Let's see what they say.

 

[daesimps]

 

[Berin]

I got the same email.
The way I read it is they are going to replace Routeplanner with Routeplanner Next .
You can pay for early access or just wait and get it for free when it’s on general release.
I certainly won’t bother but I’m sure many GS riders will sign up as they just love being beta testers and paying for the privilege!

Sounds right, let’s hope that’s the case

 

[daesimps]

 

[paul08]

I got the same email.
The way I read it is they are going to replace Routeplanner with Routeplanner Next .
You can pay for early access or just wait and get it for free when it’s on general release.
I certainly won’t bother but I’m sure many GS riders will sign up as they just love being beta testers and paying for the privilege!

I did not understand that to be the case. I understand them to be saying that as a Gold Lifetime Routeplanner subscription holder I will now be expected to pay to ‘upgrade to both Routeplanner Next and Routeplanner AI
- as can be imagined I am seriously dischuffed if this is the case

And the inference is that we will also be expected to pay for their wiz-bang upgrades to Navigator

Seems like sharp practice to me. I paid for LIFETIME subscriptions to MRA’s. Routeplanner and Navigator. This now seems to be UNTRUE. To MRA, it seems Lifetime does not mean Lifetime

 

[Berin]

That’s a bit ambiguous. It reads like they are freezing development on the existing products and developing new features in a new, extra cost product. I hope that’s not the case - it’s a bad idea.

Being in the software industry I’ve seen this before and it’s a massive customer dissatisfier. Why would anyone buy an new “lifetime gold” when they thought they’d already bought a not inexpensive lifetime gold, because clearly if they are going to gazimp customers once they’ll do it again.

 

[Berin]

I did not understand that to be the case. I understand them to be saying that as a Gold Lifetime Routeplanner subscription holder I will now be expected to pay to ‘upgrade to both Routeplanner Next and Routeplanner AI
- as can be imagined I am seriously dischuffed if this is the case

And the inference is that we will also be expected to pay for their wiz-bang upgrades to Navigator

Seems like sharp practice to me. I paid for LIFETIME subscriptions to MRA’s. Routeplanner and Navigator. This now seems to be UNTRUE. To MRA, it seems Lifetime does not mean Lifetime

They’ll argue you still have that. But not any updates.

Very disappointing if these new updates are extra cost - especially an extra €200.

 

[daesimps]

I think the second screenshot explains a tiny bit better.

I have lifetime Navigation and Gold. I don’t use Navigation as I find Scenic a million times better. I do, however, use MRA planner as it’s better than Scenic’s by a long way.

However, this quarter Scenic are releasing their web based planner. If it’s good enough, then I’ll be ditching MRA for planning too. MRA’s approach to “lifetime“ has increased the likelihood of that happening.

Scenic’s lifetime, which I also have, is just that. This includes last year (or maybe 2024) when they did a complete rewrite and moved from Here maps to OSM. Also this year when they released the ability for people to fully collaborate on routes, rather than sharing copies like MRA does.

 

[the woodster]

Thank you. The language is not precise enough for me and I'm not sure it will get any better if I contact them. I'm not looking for extra features as it's already comprehensive.

 

[Berin]

I think the second screenshot explains a tiny bit better.

I have lifetime Navigation and Gold. I don’t use Navigation as I find Scenic a million times better. I do, however, use MRA planner as it’s better than Scenic’s by a long way.

However, this quarter Scenic are releasing their web based planner. If it’s good enough, then I’ll be ditching MRA for planning too. MRA’s approach to “lifetime“ has increased the likelihood of that happening.

Scenic’s lifetime, which I also have, is just that. This includes last year (or maybe 2024) when they did a complete rewrite and moved from Here maps to OSM. Also this year when they released the ability for people to fully collaborate on routes, rather than sharing copies like MRA does.

Does Scenic have an offline mode?

 

[daesimps]

Very much so.

I’ve done nearly 50,000 miles with it (double that pretty much if you count my wife also using it on her bike)

The developer is very responsive. He’s Dutch, but lives in Mexico. I’ve reported a few bugs in the past and the next morning there’s been an update to fix them.

Historically it wasn’t available on Android, but that was released a couple of months ago

 

[Berin]

Thanks. I find I have lifetime subscription to a scenic too, from when I was experimenting with different apps.

I’m getting to grips with MRA now, on the planning side. It’s really 3 products, a navigation app, a device based route planner app, and a web based route planner app.

I’m interested to see which of those they plan on abandoning development of, in favour of a new money earner.

 

[Treb]

Personally speaking, FWIW, I spend the money on fuel and good wine

 

[Berin]

Personally speaking, FWIW, I spend the money on fuel and good wine

It's not either/or!

 

[Treb]

You're absolutely right.
Vino first!!

 

[Mzokk]

I got the same email.
The way I read it is they are going to replace Routeplanner with Routeplanner Next .
You can pay for early access or just wait and get it for free when it’s on general release.
I certainly won’t bother but I’m sure many GS riders will sign up as they just love being beta testers and paying for the privilege!

It looks like you keep the functionality that you currently have even in the new platform which is fine. I'd also be fine with £42 for the early adopter lifetime upgrades but so far that seems to be based upon AI route/schedule generation for a trip which is of no interest to me as I like to decide that sort thing. Also more capacity for collaborative planning, which again is no interest to me........as I'm a dictatorship not a democracy Things that the current planner does badly including handling POI's and tracks isn't really mentioned in the blurb which is woefully light on detail. Looks like I'll be continuing to use Basecamp (in windows, and a Garmin device) for sometime to meet my requirements. Hay Ho!