Big time bummer

[cohenc]

From the Yahoo iQue group this afternoon: (i.e. not reported by me!)

Double "Aargh!". I have pre-ordered the Ique-3600 hoping that I will get it before the summer camping/hiking season ends. See the response from Garmin Sales:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for contacting GARMIN International,

We have not yet announced an official release date for the iQue 3600. We believe it will be sometime in late July or early August. You may want to check out our website in the next few weeks for additional information on the iQue 3600. Thank you for your interest in our products.

Best regards,

Scott Dace
Product Support Specialist
GARMIN International
1-800-800-1020
www.garmin.com
Fax: 913-397-0836
---------------------------------------------------------------------

[Moose Man]

Well, it kinda speaks volumes when they changed their web site last week and stated "Summer 2003" for product availability.

We wait for 6 months since it's first appearance at CES and now we may have to wait for another 2...does this sound like a borken record with in the small electronics arena?

I'm not certain which I prefer to be teased for 6+ months so that I don't rush out and buy the latest and greatest or to be in the dark until less than 30 days?

I think Sony does a good job of replacing their technology with in a 6 month time frame. Palm blew the release of the M505 a couple of years ago and now we are seeing a T2 rumor.

Garmin - the only GPS/Handheld combo should well be worth the wait.

I hope that the delay is due to certain OS upgrades to 5.2.1 and any other requirements.

Perhaps they will include 64MB of RAM rather than the published 32?

Perhaps they will compensate the masses who preordered months ago?

Perhaps they are changing the screen to the same technology as the Zire 71 for brightness and battery life.

Perhaps - I'm on drugs and living in a totally different dimension then Garmin or I'm in the matrix?

It's this "later" perhaps and not any of it's predecessors!

[stevevo]

Go look at this article from the Kansas newspaper about the Garmin annual meeting of stock holders and they state a release date of late this month (June) We can only hope as I have had this preorder since the first part of Febuary. Let's just hope. I want it for my trip to California this summer.

http://tinyurl.com/dqe1

[coop]

Just checked the article you referenced.

"The iQue is expected to go on sale late this month."

Well, if David Hayes (the reporter) believes that, he's probably the only one on the planet!:)

Most reports seem to expect them no eariler than late July. I still hope that's 2003.

I hope to get one before Christmas, I don't expect one before the end of the summer (whenever that is).

coop

[coop]

Humm,

I also noticed that "Garmin executives demonstrated the product, called the iQue, in a video shown to stockholders on Friday".

It would make me feel better if they had one there to demonstrate, rather than relying on a video.

Is there only one of them on the planet at this point? Couldn't they free up a preproduction unit for the annual meeting? 'Fraid it would break?

Maybe the tech support people have been right when they kept replying that it was "still very much under development".

Oh, well. I'd rather get one that works, and have to wait a bit for it, than get one sooner, that doesn't work well.

Looking for a new PDA in August at the earliest

[Moose Man]

Late June, Late July, Late July, Late September? The original date was 2nd quarter now who knows - it will be worth the wait so I'm going to stop speculating until the unit arrives - but I could dream that it would make it by next week before I go to Alaska,


Stevevo - where you going while in California - I can provide some tips since it's where I live - central portion of the state and I cover the whole Northern portion....it sounds like you'll have a better chance at using the device on your vacation more so than I.

[PRC]

Amazon still has not changed their July 1st ship date, but Walmart has recently listed the iQue on pre-order with a ship date of "on or just after 7/10/2003." Hopefully the fact that more online retailers are listing the iQue with a ship date of early-to-mid July is a good sign...

[LRodK]

I just got off the phone with a technical support person for Garmin. After questioning him about the products availability, he said that the product would be available end of June or early July. Has anyone else been told this by garmin in recent days?

[ssaibal]

I am guilty of posting this info on yahoo forum from where cohen picked it up and started this thread. I would really hope that this comes out sooner than later. But, I must have pinged a very "pragmatic" product support specialist who really doesn't think the dates promised by the Sales/Mktg folks of Garmin as realistic. Or he was simply tired of giving out dates and then finding out "Oops, it didn't happen.". :o

[funkadelic]

Originally posted by PRC
Amazon still has not changed their July 1st ship date, but Walmart has recently listed the iQue on pre-order with a ship date of "on or just after 7/10/2003." Hopefully the fact that more online retailers are listing the iQue with a ship date of early-to-mid July is a good sign...

FWIW i just checked today (6/18/2003) and it now says on Walmart.com "Preorder this item today, and it will ship on or just after 8/22/2003" :(

like many others, i've got a preorder at tvnav.com, but i'll try and find out more info from the electronics buyer at walmart.

[cohenc]

A month or so back, I was just checking various e-commerce web sites that were pre-selling the iQue. One said, "New pre-orders will ship in August 2003." I phoned them, asking them if they knew about a new release date, as they were the only one noting August as a release, while all others were still stating late June (1st week of July to consumers).

I was told, at the time, that they were still going to meet the July 1st ship date for previous pre-orders, but new ones would be in their second shipment from Garmin and that wouldn't be until August.

That said, there is still a possiblity, Kansas newspaper article as possible evidence, that those of us who have pre-ordered long ago may still get it in early July, but orders following that will be delayed a month or so as production ramps up.

No idea, but I am holding out hope that I may have one in my hands by the 2nd week of July. Curious as to why all these web sites are changing dates, but the largest e-commerce of them all, Amazon, stands firm with their July 1st ship date still. I ordered from them due to their size and my guessing they would have it "first." I may be paying a few dollars more, but my hedge is that I may get it a week or month before tvnav orders. I could very well be wrong, but I do wonder why their date hasn't changed.

Cheers,
Caleb

[demiller9]

I may be paying a few dollars more, but my hedge is that I may get it a week or month before tvnav orders. I could very well be wrong, but I do wonder why their date hasn't changed.

I first bought from TVNav several years ago and since that time have been receiving messages from the Yahoo forum he maintains.

When the Garmin Rinos were announced last year there were a lot of very eager buyers waiting for its release, just as there are now for the iQue. When Garmin finally shipped it (in October, as opposed to its original April date), TVNav was among the very first to receive product and fulfill orders. That's one more reason I put my order in to them.

Don

[funkadelic]

Originally posted by funkadelic

like many others, i've got a preorder at tvnav.com, but i'll try and find out more info from the electronics buyer at walmart.

ok so i heard back...from what i've been told, walmart buys direct from garmin while amazon buys from a distributor...so in most likelyhood walmart.com will get them in before amazon does (not to mention the buying power & influence walmart has). he said that mid-august was the latest he heard that garmin will have the product

[PRC]

Amazon changed their release date from July 1st to July 15th :-( It now looks like everybody is pushing their dates back.

[demiller9]

I think the date change you see is a positive move... the initial dates were probably from less specific Garmin information ("Q2", "Summer", or "July"), the newest shipping dates are from specific information ("second week of July"). I put more faith in these newest dates, and think there is less chance than before that they will be changing again.
Don

[ssaibal]

Spoke to TVNAV on Fri, 6/27. They had spoken to Garmin early this week and they were told 2 weeks from that time would be the first shipment. Don't know about the quantity.

Looks like 7/15 is a likely date for the first shipment

[cohenc]

From PCWorld - http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,111263,00.asp

"The $589 device, available in two weeks in stores..." (June 20th)

The article implies, but is not explicit, that the author actually saw this thing in use. That would be a major sighing these days - remember, it didn't even show up at the Garmin shareholders meeting...

Cheers,
Caleb

[omnibus]

Originally posted by cohenc
From PCWorld - http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,111263,00.asp

"The $589 device, available in two weeks in stores..." (June 20th)

The article implies, but is not explicit, that the author actually saw this thing in use. That would be a major sighing these days - remember, it didn't even show up at the Garmin shareholders meeting...

Cheers,
Caleb

Well Caleb, If we take that article at face value it should make a nice Independence day present (article written 6/10).

Not crossing my fingers but I did find a good deal on a sandisk 256mb sd card at http://www.buy.com $47 shipped after $20 mail in rebate.

It does appear that nobody had their hands on a prototype at any of the trade shows mentioned, course they would have had to jump thru hoops to set up a working GPS indoors.

[cohenc]

Speaking of SD Cards...

I plan on loading in pretty much everything east of the Mississippi as soon as I can - I will definitely need more memory and would also opt for 256 MB or whatever the upper end limit is. So my question is can I go get this tomorrow, say, from like CompUSA or BestBuy or Circuit City? Or even on-line? I don't need to gleen any info from the unit as to which types are compatible or such? yes/no?

Online suggestions and/or brands to stay with or away from? I have a $10 e-coupon from buy.com, will check them out... which I see is also where omnibus got his. Someone say "go" and I'll have that order off this evening...

Cheers,
Caleb

[omnibus]

Originally posted by cohenc
Speaking of SD Cards...

I plan on loading in pretty much everything east of the Mississippi as soon as I can - I will definitely need more memory and would also opt for 256 MB or whatever the upper end limit is. So my question is can I go get this tomorrow, say, from like CompUSA or BestBuy or Circuit City? Or even on-line? I don't need to gleen any info from the unit as to which types are compatible or such? yes/no?

Online suggestions and/or brands to stay with or away from? I have a $10 e-coupon from buy.com, will check them out... which I see is also where omnibus got his. Someone say "go" and I'll have that order off this evening...

Cheers,
Caleb

I'm going to take a giant leap and say that the higher mega-bite sd cards, say 128 and up, are all made by the same manufacturer. At least the chip is. These things have got to have some super high density integrated circuits, probably not something the smaller cheaper companies can deal with.

You should be quite safe. Anything 512mb or smaller that says sd card will work in the iQue.

Caleb and I are on the same wavelength, but I'm going for everything WEST of the mississippi. I've lived in Wyoming for just over a year after spending 50 plus years in the east.:)

[paul6347]

I'm also anxiously awaiting the shipping date (more like the arrival date), of the IQue 3600. I'm also shopping for accessories and already picked up a Vortex antenna (VERY good, works great with my Etrex Vista) to use with the 3600. I want to buy memory also, so I did my research. The following is for the Panasonic SD card brand only, but it's also a good comparitive on other brands as well.

MB's Price Price Per MB
32 $ 29.99 .9359
64 $ 34.95 .546
128 $ 53.95 .4215
256 $ 79.95 .3123
512 $259.95 .5077

The BEST deal for memory is the 256mb, and the worst is the 32mb.

I am currently using a Garmin Etrex Vista with 24mb of memory built in. I have it filled and have the 5 boroughs of NYC, Westchester, plus half of CT and Long Island, all of NJ, part of PA, and Binghamton and Albany NY.

With 204mb you have have every street in every state between Maine to Deleware to Ohio to Michigan, the whole NorthEast US. 256mb + 32mb (built in) - 204mb = 84mb left over for programs.

Taking into consideration of price and capacity, I'm going to go with the 256mb.


Paul

[chrisbac]

You can also get the SanDisk Cruzer which includes a 256MB SD card AND a card reader with a USB interface to connect to a computer as an alternate use for $79.87.

Get this at Buy.com (http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10321052&loc=101). It sounds like a good deal.

[omnibus]

I got a Sandisk 256mb for $47 at buy.com after rebate and I'm waiting for a Dazzle 6 in 1 card reader to come back in stock for less than $20 after rebate.

[paul6347]

There's a:
SmartDisk 6-in-1 USB Universal Media Reader for $ 9.99!

It's on Ecost.com for a limited time and quantity.

here's the link:


http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?DPNo=480191


Paul

[omnibus]

Originally posted by paul6347
There's a:
SmartDisk 6-in-1 USB Universal Media Reader for $ 9.99!

It's on Ecost.com for a limited time and quantity.

here's the link:


http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?DPNo=480191


Paul

I had almost completed ordering the reader on ecost.com's site. At the checkout they have the guts to tack on a $3.95 handling fee on top of the shipping charges. I think not:mad: