Joined: 17 Dec 2007 Posts: 41 Location: Sunnyvale, California
Possibility for getting IQ Routes on older units? Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:38 am
Based on your experience with Tomtom, how likely do you think people will be able to get IQ routes on the older units?
In the area I am in (the Silicon Valley), Tomtom seems to be noticeably worse in route selection. I love the rich set of features and flexibilty that the Tomtom's offer but get annoyed by their route selections from time to time. I am hoping IQ routes can give the Tomtom's a big boost in the quality of their route selection. I returned a Tomtom XL because of the route selection but the news of IQ routes got me excited for Tomtom again.
I am deciding between a GO 920 and the Magellan 4250 which is cheaper and have had pretty good reoute selections around my areas (based on the test drives I did with a friend's unit for the last 2 weeks). If there is a reasonably chance to get the IQ routes with the 920, I will most likely get it instead of the Magellan. If it's not likely to happen, I will probably just save the money with the Magellan and wait until the future to go back to Tomtom.
So in the past, did Tomtom generally make new features available to older units through a software or map upgrade? My guess is that the IQ route information will be embedded into the maps (it has to, right?). If I got the 920 which has a one-year map upgrade guarantee, chances are I will get the IQ route through a map update in the next year. Is this assumption reasonable? I guess they can also easily add a tag in the map so the older models won't be able to make use of the embedded information but seems to be extra work and space waste.
Please share your thoughts on this. While my subject says IQ routes only, if you have some thoughts on the Lane Guidance, please feel free to share here as well.
Re: Possibility for getting IQ Routes on older units? Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:15 am
svlman wrote:
Based on your experience with Tomtom, how likely do you think people will be able to get IQ routes on the older units?
In the area I am in (the Silicon Valley), Tomtom seems to be noticeably worse in route selection. I love the rich set of features and flexibilty that the Tomtom's offer but get annoyed by their route selections from time to time. I am hoping IQ routes can give the Tomtom's a big boost in the quality of their route selection. I returned a Tomtom XL because of the route selection but the news of IQ routes got me excited for Tomtom again.
I am deciding between a GO 920 and the Magellan 4250 which is cheaper and have had pretty good reoute selections around my areas (based on the test drives I did with a friend's unit for the last 2 weeks). If there is a reasonably chance to get the IQ routes with the 920, I will most likely get it instead of the Magellan. If it's not likely to happen, I will probably just save the money with the Magellan and wait until the future to go back to Tomtom.
So in the past, did Tomtom generally make new features available to older units through a software or map upgrade? My guess is that the IQ route information will be embedded into the maps (it has to, right?). If I got the 920 which has a one-year map upgrade guarantee, chances are I will get the IQ route through a map update in the next year. Is this assumption reasonable? I guess they can also easily add a tag in the map so the older models won't be able to make use of the embedded information but seems to be extra work and space waste.
Please share your thoughts on this. While my subject says IQ routes only, if you have some thoughts on the Lane Guidance, please feel free to share here as well.
Thanks in advance.
Why not wait on the 930? If you are in a hurry...
Since the Maggie can be had for $250 with the Costco coupon, that is nigh unbeatable! Even if you find you dont like it, you can sell it and buy the 930 later. The 920 best price now is $360.
The 920 may get all these upgrades, but it will take months in the most likely case.
Re: Possibility for getting IQ Routes on older units? Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:31 am
svlman wrote:
If I got the 920 which has a one-year map upgrade guarantee
The one year map guarantee appears to have been a short promotion, many shipping now include the same 30 day guarantee as the other TomTom models.
TomTom does have a good history of providing feature updates to older devices (think NavCore 7, Help Me, MapShare), however you are correct that it will rely on a map which has that information included. If it does come out for older models I agree with Infama that it will be "months" not weeks before it might be made available.
Joined: 17 Dec 2007 Posts: 41 Location: Sunnyvale, California
Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:19 pm
Tim and Infama, thanks a million for the quick responses and advice. I know the Maestro 4250 deal at Costco is a really good one but just like the Tomtom's overall feel better. My WAF for gadgets is quite low so if I get the Magellan now, it will be a long time before I can even dream about replacing it with a newer unit, especially the 930 or even 730 will be at a higher price than the $360 that I can get the 920 with now.
I am glad that Tim pointed out my misunderstanding of the 1-year map upgrade guarantee for the 920. Without that, I think the chance for getting IQ routes on a 920 purchased now will be very low. I guess I will just have to settle with the Magellan and cry my heart out. Or maybe I can postpone my planned road trips by about a year so that I can wait for the 940's to come out and knocked the price for 930 down next year.
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