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Monday May 4, 2009
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Fare thee well, gentle friend. Those of us who cover GPS devices knew something was up: Navigon PR visited New York City on April 20th for three days of press demos, but unexpectedly flew back to Chicago that night, cancelling most appointments. The inside word was that something big was happening, but no one was saying what.
That question was answered this morning when Navigon announced it was leaving the PND (personal navigation device) market in North America. Speaking to GPS Business News, Navigon's CEO Egon Minar said, "Due to the difficult economic environment and the aggressive pricing we have decided to withdraw from the PND business in North America for the time being. We are however not closing down our Chicago office which will continue to serve our automotive and mobile phone businesses in North America."
It's a surprising end for a company that made a big splash in a short time. Navigon entered the North American market in September 2007 and quickly muscled its way into the number four spot thanks to attractive designs and envelope-pushing features.
North American buyers have increasingly gone after bargain-priced bare-bones GPS devices rather than premium models, and profit margins have become increasingly thin. As cell phone navigation picks up this summer, with turn-by-turn directions coming to the iPhone and Garmin finally releasing the Nuvifone, PND makers will have to battle for a shrinking audience.
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May 4, 2009 4:41 PM
This is certainly not a surprise to those of us who purchased a Navigon GPS, only to encounter (a) helpful but ultimately unhelpful customer support (b) unanswered questions about Windows CE related glitches in their units (c) numerous problems such as fatal app error freezes and restarts (d) hours of frustrations using their website to update and/or re-register units.
In my case, I am on my 3rd 7200 T and while so far it is operating without problems in comparison with the first two, every day I go out with it I do so with fingers crossed.
So -- here are some questions:
1. Though Navigon says it will be keeping its Chicago office open, what does this mean for customers who purchased Navigon GPS units all the way up to their 8100 series?
2. What does this mean for Navigon customers who purchased 2 or 3 year Freshmaps subscriptions?
3. What does this mean for Navigon customers who encounter continuing problems with their equipment?
This just begs for some sort of class action suit!
May 6, 2009 6:41 PM
Everyone needs to keep in mind that they are not pulling out because of bad products. The products are great. They are pulling out because the world is moving faster and PND's are becoming obsolete. Since everyone will be able to navigate on their phone, what would be the reasons to have PNDs? Navigon is already merged with tmobile in germany so... I would say this is a smart idea.
Current customers will not be affected by the pull out. You still get freshmaps subscriptions and customer service and I say kudos to navigon for that.
May 7, 2009 7:12 AM
I just bought a 7200T from Amazon yesterday. Hopefully I will work flawlessly. I suppose I can always return to Amazon if need be.
May 8, 2009 3:48 PM
I have the 2100 model and I have had no problems at all with it. Love it! I do have 11 more map updates coming and hope that Navigon will give me what I paid for.
May 13, 2009 1:43 PM
I just purchased the 7200T and it has worked flawlessly right out of the box. I haven't purchased the map updates yet, but I plan to do so within the next 2-3 months. Great product. I have owned a couple of other brands and Navigon has proven to be a top-notch contender. I don't think that they will pull out completely; just sales.
June 3, 2009 4:55 PM
WARNING !!
Navigon is NOT honering map update subsscriptions.
They just discontinued NA updates for all standalone GPS units.
A Class Action Lawsuit s nessescarry !!
I paid for three years and Navigon support is not even being honest, nevermind helpful.
I am doing a merchant recharge " Dispute" and am loking for people to join the Lawsut, since all that have purchased units are left with devices sold under false pretenses despite them knowing this.
Please spread the word EVERYWHERE, we need to get our money back.
I LOVE the Navigon products !!......but this is Business,.
No notification whatsoevver.
This is not legal to sell PDA unts wth NA Maps but not provide GPS unts prepaid any longer.
September 15, 2009 12:39 AM
Look friends, Navigon has simply determined that they hate the US and are using Nazi like tactics to damage American consumers. Join together for a lawsuit. don't let these Nazi bastards get away with it.
September 28, 2009 11:53 AM
I am with you on this, i have a navigon gps and its not working properly and now i cant get any kind of support for this device that i purchase, it s not even a year yet. what can we do about this.
October 7, 2009 8:28 PM
There is nothing we can do except to file a suit.
We need to find a law firm that handles class action lawsuits.
There are several. I am looking into it.