TomTom's Upgrade Policy

PeterJD · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 3:27 pm Post subject: TomTom's Upgrade Policy

TomTom have advised me that they do not offer any upgrade from Navigator 2 to v3. They may or my not offer an upgrade to the next version. (If they do it will be at double the price.)

Most software companies do offer upgrade routes to their customers. A few, because of market dominance or arrogance, only allow upgrades for several years, in order to force customers to upgrade continuously whether they wish to or not. (Autodesk comes to mind...) It seems TomTom think only in months.

I normally prefer to wait until a new release is proved to be stable, especially with something like a navigation product where crashes or a GPS drop-outs could be very inconvenient. (I've only just installed WinXP Service Pack 2.)

I accept that a software company can determine their own upgrade policy, but TomTom's policy seems an effective way of alienating customers.

Dave · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 3:52 pm Post subject:

TomTom did in-fact offer an upgrade policy from Nav2 to Nav3, but as always it's time limited and only available for 2-3 months after the release of the new software. if you haven't upgraded within this time, the tail off on upgrades is substantial and it's just not worth the time and effort for them to offer the upgrade.

Upgrades are usually around 49 euro's / £30. Whether there will be an upgrade to the next release is obviously down to TomTom. It has already been released as the HP iPAQ Navigation System but bundled with GPS and PDA. Whether there will be a software only version and upgrade is down to TomTom at the end of the day.

CeBit is just around the corner in March, so watch for announcements there.

PeterJD · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 4:18 pm Post subject:

Darren · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject:

You could have taken advantage of the upgrade but held off on its installation if stability concerns were the issue.
_________________
Darren Griffin

PeterJD · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 4:47 pm Post subject:

Indeed I could. But whether or not I'd wish to bet money up front on a company being able to fix bugs does not affect the fact that TomTom's upgrade policy is very poor in comparison with most software companies, who do not withdraw upgrade routes after a few months.

Darren · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:51 pm Post subject:

In the GPS arena TomTom's upgrade policy is actually the best of them all. Some do not offer any discounts on version upgrades at all.
_________________
Darren Griffin

PeterJD · Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:36 am Post subject:

If correct, that is not reassuring. I hope this website advocates good practice rather than defends the bad by accepting as a norm the worst.

	PocketGPS
	Web