UPDATE: The Colorado 300 has joined the discontinued list.
Earlier this week, Garmin moved the Colorado 400 series to their discontinued list. The Colorado was the first high-resolution handheld introduced by Garmin, but it was quickly followed by the touch-screen Oregon, where it seems most of Garmin’s development efforts were focused. The Colorado series never did get some of the features found on the Oregon and has since languished in the marketplace.
I hesitated posting this for a few days, waiting to see if the Colorado 300 would meet the same fate, but it looks like Garmin sees a spot for the 300 in the marketplace as a low-end, hi-res unit.
Via @gpsfix
About Rich Owings
This doesn’t come as a surprise. There were rumours more than 6 months ago that the Colorado was going to be discontinued. For whatever reason, this model line never appealed to me. I am still using an eTrex Vista B&W
do you see the handheld market declining similar to that of the pnd? it seems that more and more one-trick ponies are losing ground to devices that can handle a lot.
I think that will take a lot longer. We’re quite a ways from having ruggedized cell phones and backcountry connectivity.
For some people, what is offered in the iPhone et al., might be sufficient but I agree with Rich. These phone-cum-GPS units aren’t nearly as durable/rugged enough for the use in the backcountry. I wouldn’t want to be hiking in the rain with my iPhone as a navigator, whereas I’ve done this several times with my Garmn.
This product has always been an odd duck in the Garmin line. New high end handhelds every two years in Jan were the norm for Garmin for several years. Colorado was right on schedule. Then Oregon came along that summer. Most of us assumed OR was “just” a CO with a touch screeen instead of the (kind of awful) rock and roller and would stay lockstepped in firmware versions. Instead, we saw development move almost entirely to OR with a few things like imagery being added to CO.
Two years is a very short lifespan in their handheld line. I wonder if there were legal or manufacturing issues with rock and roller or something. (No inside info there, just finding it odd and considering causes.)
Maybe the Nuvi mindset is coming to their handheld line and products will have a short life cycle with features added to new models and old models more aggressively discontinued.