Garmin to BlackBerry owners: a hundred bucks and you'll never get lost again
As great as on-device navigation can be, the monthly fee can be really hard to swallow, especially considering that dedicated nav units offer all the functionality (or the most important parts, anyway) free of ongoing charges. Granted, services like TeleNav offer ongoing map updates, traffic maps, weather conditions, and so on -- but for many, the $10 pop every 30 days doesn't justify itself. Enter Garmin -- the 800-pound gorilla of dedicated nav units -- with its new lifetime service for BlackBerrys, promising all the spoils of Garmin's mobile navigation service for as long as customers own their trusty GPS-equipped BlackBerry for $99.99. Folks that find themselves investing in a new phone every six months need not apply, obviously, but for those who consider their marriage to a particular BlackBerry to be a long-term commitment, this might be a nice little proposition.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
wako @ May 20th 2008 6:26PM
heres another idea...
i could spend $100 dollars and buy a real GPS system, and not be tied down to a blackberry and still never get lost... oh wait, i think thats a better idea...
helixtimestwo @ May 20th 2008 8:01PM
How exactly does this work?
Is the $99 for a microSD card that has map data loaded on it already and just makes use of the BB A-GPS?
Or is it for a one-time subscription fee requiring you to have a data plan on your phone that will constantly 'grab' data from Garmin servers as you drive along?
Will @ May 20th 2008 8:17PM
telenav is a much better deal even though it's $10/month. to constantly get traffic updates and get re-routed around accidents that could make me late to work or meetings, it's absolutely awesome.
Maanfi24 @ May 21st 2008 12:10PM
Follow the read link and you'll find that the Garmin service has traffic and gas price info as well. Use this for 10 months and it's cheaper than Telenav.
Z Monster @ May 20th 2008 8:48PM
sounds good
I have the tomtom navigator 6 on my tilt and its great. It definately help when I am at a place with no AT&T reception or just edge. It works much like the standalone units. The tomtom maps took up nearly a gig on my 4gb microSD card. In some cases its much better than just google maps + GPS. Its nice for people who travel a lot. I havent tried the telenav but I am sure it wont work w/o cell reception. Tomtom for phones has traffic updates over ur data connection. I'd imagine garmin does it too.
Grant Kemp @ May 21st 2008 7:10AM
Erm what if your phone is dropped and your insurance sends you a new one? Or if it gets stolen?
Doesn't sound very thought out at all.
Why not just release on microsd? Oh yeah it can be pirated just like this version will be. Whatever you call it DRM is bad, and face it- people like to own things that they buy.....
frank @ May 21st 2008 12:42PM
If their software could figure out how to unfuck my Verizon-crippled 8830 GPS, I'd be all over it.