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In short, if you're considering buying a TomTom GO 910, you're probably also considering getting the c550. |
Continue reading "Garmin StreetPilot c550 vs. TomTom GO 910: Which one should I buy?" »
Rumors are popping up around the ‘net that Microsoft may acquire Dutch GPS maker TomTom. Both Microsoft and TomTom are denying any such acquisition, although TomTom’s stock price shot up 6% (up to €32.41 as of last Tuesday) based on the rumors of a potential buy out from MSFT.
TomTom did not respond to requests for comment. The company's chief operating officer Alexander Ribbink has played down the speculation, telling Reuters: "That's news to me. I haven't heard about it".
After thinking about this one a bit, a TomTom acquisition might make sense for Microsoft. Currently the company makes Streets & Trips (AutoRoute in Europe), and has made no secret of the fact it wants a bigger piece of the PND pie.
Personally, I like the idea – Take TomTom’s good design and add Microsoft’s deep pockets and considerable marketing resources, and we might just actually get a TomTom/Microsoft product that functions correctly and has good customer support!
Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if TomTom wants to play with the big boys (Garmin, Magellan), it’s going to have to hand out some pink slips in its customer service and QA departments.
On July 3rd TomTom posted version 6.12 firmware for the TomTom GO, One, and Rider series, and after just a few hours had to pull the update from the site after users reported the update killed their devices, rendering them unable to boot.
TomTom claims they did the right thing and yanked the update as soon as they heard users were experiencing trouble. However, I say there shouldn’t be this much trouble in the first place. TomTom is plagued by little details. Their mounting hardware sucks, the 910 can’t keep time (an odd problem for a GPS to have), and they’ve had several buggy firmware releases.
This isn’t the first time TomTom’s run into the Firmware update crisis. This is the second such instance that we know of. TomTom – while I’m sure everyone appreciates the speedyness with which you release new products and firmware, but please start doing some QA on your code (and do some customer sat training while you’re at it).
| REVIEW UPDATE: This GPS model has been discontinued |
Garmin's latest GPS in it's popular StreetPilot c-series is the highly anticipated StreetPilot c550. The c550 is Garmin's first GPS to utilize SiRF's high performance SiRF Star III 20 channel GPS receiver. The c550 also sports WAAS, Bluetooth, and NAVTEQ mapping data.
I put the StreetPilot c550 through it's paces, and compare how the c550stacks up against the competition.
