UPDATE (June 17, 2010): Sad to say I received this from Navigon’s PR manager today:
I came across your blog post about the NAVIGON 70 showing up at FCC and wanted to clarify that we are not planning to launch new PND’s in the U.S. at this point. NAVIGON has reallocated its resources in the U.S. from the PND to the software business in the smartphone and automotive field. The reason why the NAVIGON 70 landed at the FCC is that we will have an AAFES version of this product in Germany for U.S. soldiers stationed there. Since the military bases in Germany are considered U.S. ground, our products need to go through the FCC.
Well it sure does look that way, since several models just sailed through the FCC. It all seems to indicate that the Navigon 70/71 Plus, Premium and Premium Car models are heading back to this side of the pond. Perhaps the Portable Navigation Device (PND) market isn’t dead after all.
Navigon pulled out of the US just over a year ago, leaving behind more than a few devoted fans. The company drove quite a bit of innovation during their state-side foray; they were the first manufacturer to introduce reality view, lifetime traffic and map update subscriptions. I haven’t been following them too closely since, but their UK site hints at what we can expect from a couple of these units:
About Rich Owings
The folding of navigon in the US totally sucks to say the least. They left all their customers with navigon gps’s unable to update the maps on their units. So now what? Do we just toss the units in the garbage can and go with another brand or maybe I can just use my android cell phone and use my FREE Google gps to travel with. Way to go navigon, should of bought another brand from the begining!!!!