Garmin Leaving the PDA Market??

[Red90]

I was browsing Garmin's site and they show every PDA as discontinued except the 3000. Looks like they have given up on PDAs.

[Moose Man]

The 3000 is less than a year old and my guess is that when present inventory is depleted - it's history.

Having a Nuvi 350 and a Nuvi 660 - I can tell you that the sophistication of these two devices especially the 660 with Bluetooth and it's speaker phone capabilities - well, I'll use my Treo coupled with this device and it's portable enough for two devices rather than one.

The real question is whether or not Palm will get out of a PDA device? Which would force Garmin to follow suit to some degrees.

Since most of the devices being sold today are either a Treo, Smartphone or Windows Mobile phone (that have PDA capabilities) and since many of the carrier's are bundling GPS solutions with their own hardware - I think Garmin is wise to focus on dedicated GPS with additional feature sets to attract this changing market.

Jeff Hawkins is working on the next generation of Palm device which is supposed to be in it's own category and due out sometime next year. My guess - phone, large screen, GPS builtin, media player and bundled with BT and wifi and some other features that have never been part of either Garmin or Palm's full packages.

The next generation of PDA will be called something else - perhaps Personal Informational Device or some catchy name......?

[RBEmerson]

The simple truth is the PDA market is essentially a dead end. Other devices are taking over the place of the "smart Day-Timer" model Palm, et al. introduced but PalmOS-based gizmo we've come to know and love isn't likely to go much further. So it's no surprise that Garmin's bailing on the market.

[fwaltman]

I guess this is sort of off topic, but about the only thing I use my iQue for that couldn't be done with a Nuvi and/or my cell phone is reading ebooks. The Nuvis look like they should handle ebooks fine, but I haven't seen anything -- anybody know?

(Not planning on replacing Betty, but she will retire sometime)

[Ken in Regina]

For me it's all about the integration. I want my address book totally integrated with my email program and my GPS. By syncing the address book with Outlook Express I get the best of all possible worlds.

Close to half the entries in my address book have their GPS locations and probably three-quarters have email addresses. I really hate the thought of ever having to manage them with seperate applications, never mind seperate hardware. :mad:

...ken...

[Moose Man]

I guess this is sort of off topic, but about the only thing I use my iQue for that couldn't be done with a Nuvi and/or my cell phone is reading ebooks. The Nuvis look like they should handle ebooks fine, but I haven't seen anything -- anybody know?

(Not planning on replacing Betty, but she will retire sometime)

My Nuvi handles ebooks ok but I think it's still more convenient being handled by the Palm rather than the Nuvi.

The Nuvi typically remains in the car and the Treo doesn't so that's some of the convenience issue. Screen is good enough and perhaps better since it's wider so it would be a matter of user preference.

[remltr]

I called Garmin sales yesterday to find out when the Mobile 10 will be available. (not sure yet, but soon).

As an aside I asked if Garmin was bailing on the PDA market because they seemed to be down to only one item on the website. The response was "Oh, I am sure there will be others coming along." I tried to press for some details, but got the impression that the sales person did not want to discuss it any further.

I came to the 3600 market late (summer 2006). Since that time I had been touting it to all that I know, only to find a couple months later that it is discontinued. What a shame.

If Garmin were to upgrade the 3600 with sirf III, and maybe add bluetooth or WIFI I bet that it would sell like hotcakes. The original was so innovative and still in my opnion beats what is hitting the market today that does not have integrated gps.

[Moose Man]

.......
If Garmin were to upgrade the 3600 with sirf III, and maybe add bluetooth or WIFI I bet that it would sell like hotcakes. The original was so innovative and still in my opnion beats what is hitting the market today that does not have integrated gps.

Yes but us early adopters remember (and if you searched here in this forum for very early threads in 2003) Garmin promised BT with a next gen of 3600 or it's replacment.

They would also have to put it into landscape mode for GPS'ing.

My ideal converged device would be something along the footprint of a 3600 with Wifi, BT, Phone with 3G capabilities, slide out keyboard but also Graffiti and that would do landscape on command, 6 hour battery life for either GPS or Talk, louder speaker, Palm OS preferred but would consider PPC5, and sirf III capabilities.

But since Garmin couldn't get BT onboard.....well I doubt that they will do Radio/Phone.

Lets see what next generation of Palm device Jeff Hawkins has up his sleeve. I saw a video here in North Texas last week that showed a "unbranded" device that was touted as the Next Generation combo phone and personal device. It looked as if it could have fit the description I wrote above and it's supposed to be available 1st QTR of 07. They were interviewing one of the "suppliers" to the manufacturer during the video but the representative would not say who would be releasing it other than it was not a new Phone manufacturer but one of the larger current manufacturers.

This could mean, Moto, Nokia, Samsung, LG, or possibly Palm. The supplier was a silicon valley company (not public and I didn't get the name because it was no one I recognized) so I guess will just have to wait for the annoucement to surface next year before we know.

[stevevo]

Moose Man are you still around. I was one of the first to have the 3600 and was the one with all the troubles. I ended up with 13 RMA's and finally they asked if I wanted to go to the M5 and I took the bait and have never had an ounce of trouble with it. It works like the day I got it and has BT. I am now finding the battery failing and would like to find a new one with more mAh's. Would you happen to know if one exists? Nice seeing you on line as I haven't been to the forum for awhile. Is Bokkie still on? and the guy from Netherlands Jon???. Can't remember his name.

[RBEmerson]

Truth is, much as I like my iQue when it behaves (never did get a fix for the roundabout crash, for example), I've just picked up a 2610 (yeah, also "disco'ed" but, from all I can find out, still fairly "Betty-like" compared to the 27xx and 28xx series) for my bike and car use. I'll keep the 3600 because a) I need a PDA and b) I might as well have a backup in case the 2610 tanks. But hold my breath waiting for a new and improved PDA/GPSR from Garmin? Nah.

Why? As I said above, the PDA as we know it seems to have hit the wall on development; why would Garmin go back into that market? Additionally, a big reason for picking a 2610 over a later version (well, yeah, cost matters, too...:p) is the later versions, while they offer chrome like XM and FM playback of audio, and Bluetooth in the 28xx series, are clearly dumbed down from the 26xx series. Take a look at the on-line manuals for all three series to see what I mean. Therefore, it's not very likely that Garmin's going to come up with a new PDA format GPSR I'm going to want to drop big bucks on. :(

[Moose Man]

Moose Man are you still around. I was one of the first to have the 3600 and was the one with all the troubles. I ended up with 13 RMA's and finally they asked if I wanted to go to the M5 and I took the bait and have never had an ounce of trouble with it. It works like the day I got it and has BT. I am now finding the battery failing and would like to find a new one with more mAh's. Would you happen to know if one exists? Nice seeing you on line as I haven't been to the forum for awhile. Is Bokkie still on? and the guy from Netherlands Jon???. Can't remember his name.

Stevevo - you are a walking example of why Garmin is getting out of the PDA business.

I'm still hanging around but now I'm a Nuvi 660 convert and a Treo 680 - so I come into this forum just to "moderate" and see what's going on from very little time to the next very little time.

Good to see you are still with us.

[iQueRMA]

It really is a shame that Garmin has decided to practically leave the PDA/GPS market. I know the 3000 and 3600a still exists. Recently my employer had asked me to test out the Magellan Roadmate 700 for him. I know this is an older model but I believe slightly newer than the 3600. I was surprised how it can't compare with the 3600. I thought since it's a dedicated auto navigational GPS it would have more features than the 3600 in terms of a GPS. There so many more advantages with the 3600 than the Magellan model it's surprising why anyone would chose to buy a dedicated unit like that. Perhaps the current crop of auto navigational GPS's are much better but I don't have any experience with the recent models. BTW, I even prefer my eTrex Vista Cx than the Roadmate 700. Maybe, it's Garmin that's better than Magellan.

[audscott]

I wasn't an "early," early adopter, but three years now not a single RMA or problem with "my" 3600. I say "my" as I sold it to my next door neighbor im April of 2006 and it still works great. I went the M5 route, which is a superior product, IMHO. So much so, I bought another after Christmas for my wife when Fry's in Oregon had the M5 n sale for $299. Maybe that's the signal of the Garmin PDA wholesale bin: None-the less, I am quite happy with the M5 as I was with the 3600 until I decided I needed more features.