Navigon USA folds

Following several days of speculation in blogs and on message boards, Navigon CEO Egon Minar has confirmed that they will “withdraw from the PND business in North America.” Though they are saying this is “for the time being,” I seriously doubt that they will ever reverse this decision. Navigon is keeping their Chicago office open, but it is unclear what level (if any) of support services will remain, or if Navigon owners will be able to purchase new services.

Top ten GPS for April 2009

It's the first of the month, which means it's time to look back at the stats and check out last month's top ten. In auto navigators, a couple of TomTom units moved up, and the new voice command nuvi 885T has cracked the list.

On the sport side there was a major shift though, as the perennial number one, the venerable 60CSx dropped to number three. The new champ is the touch screen Oregon 400t. Also noteworthy is the continued rise of the DeLorme PN-40.

As usual, the rankings are based on the number of times each GPS review has been read here on GPS Tracklog. With over 100,000 total page views for the 20 units below, it’s bound to tell us something about consumer interest in the GPS marketplace.

Top ten auto GPS

1. Garmin nuvi 260W
2. Garmin nuvi 255W
3. Garmin nuvi 755T
4. Garmin nuvi 265WT
5. Garmin nuvi 205W
6. TomTom XL 330-S
7. Garmin nuvi 260
8. TomTom GO 730
9. Garmin nuvi 780
10. Garmin nuvi 885T

June ship date for nuvifone G60?

Reuters is reporting that the first Linux-based Garmin-Asus smartphone (that would be the nuvifone G60) will ship in June. We still don’t have carrier announcements, although it seems fairly certain that it will be AT&T. Nor have pricing details been released. I suspect AT&T is keeping a lid on that info, but we should hear from them by sometime next month.

Garmin nuvi 1490T offers 5-inch screen

The Garmin nuvi 1490T was announced today, a 5-inch wide version of the recently unveiled 1200 and 1300 series units. This will be a relatively high-end model, with lifetime traffic alerts, lane assist / junction view and Bluetooth. It also brings something to the table not found on the 1200/1300 models – multi-destination routing.

Motorola to unveil connected PND this fall?

Motorola is planning to update their GPS line this fall, and they are dropping hints that they may venture into the manufacturing connected PNDs. According to Blake Bullock, who heads up their navigation products operations:

"We’re absolutely making a bigger play," said navigation product line manager Blake Bullock. "We believe we can bring something new to the table with Motorola’s vast experience in wireless connectivity. We have aspirations to do just that, combining the best aspects of 3G smartphones with PNDs and creating optimized experiences for consumers."

Mio says they’re still here

A few days ago I posted about the GPS Business News report that Mio was leaving the U.S. market. Now, this backdated news release has shown up on their website:

“In response to the article published in GPS Business News entitled “Mio closing business in the US” on April 3, 2009, Mio announced that the company will continue the sales in the North American market. Mio will offer products in selected channels and launch new products in May. Mio emphasize that the company will also continue to deliver sleek, easy-to-use portable navigation devices to the market, and also accelerate the development of a variety of innovative GPS-based lifestyle products that extend the user experience well beyond traditional PNDs.”

Dual use GPS for road and trail

I want a GPS that does it all; this has got to be one of the most frequent requests I hear. 

Several companies have tried to create GPS receivers that will work well on the road or in your hand -- for backcountry use, geocaching or what have you. The latest example is the Garmin nuvi 500 series, pictured above at left.

Magellan RoadMate 1340, 1440 and 1470

It’s official now; Magellan has introduced three new models – the RoadMate 1340, 1440 and 1470. Each of the new models offers their One Touch interface, AAA TourBook, text-to-speech, Highway Lane Assist, exit POIs and multi-destination routing.

Here are the details:

Magellan beefs up features on RoadMate line

Though there’s been no official announcement, Magellan quietly rolled out three new RoadMate units at CTIA last week, and one – the 4.7” Magellan RoadMate 1470 (pictured above) – is already available at Amazon.

The new models add features to the entry-level RoadMate series that were previously found only on the Maestro line. For example, the RoadMate 1470 includes Magellan’s new “One Touch” interface, multi-destination routing, highway lane assist, and AAA TourBook features.

Nuvifone news from CTIA Wireless show

Well, its the last day of CTIA Wireless and it’s pretty clear there won’t be any nuvifone carrier or pricing announcements forthcoming from Garmin-Asus. I‘m hoping this is just due to AT&T not wanting to steal the thunder from their new introductions that are coming sooner than the nuvifone.

So the news from the show is limited, but here’s what we’ve seen so far: