Sunday, March 18, 2012

More Garmin nuvis bite the dust

Discontinued Garmin nuLink 1695

Garmin has discontinued more auto units, including the connected nuLink 1695

With the announcement of the 2013 nuvi series, we were expecting Garmin to move more models to the discontinued list. That has indeed happened; in addition to several 14xx series models, they’ve also pulled the plug on the nuLink 1695, and most 2xx0 and 37xx models. Here’s the list, followed by a look at which older models remain…

Newly discontinued

Still kicking

With lifetime maps and traffic (LMT) nearly standard on the 2013 nuvis, it looks like Garmin wants to keep a few models around without LMT or with just lifetime traffic. Here’s the list of 14xx, 2xx0 and 37xx models that are still listed as “previous models” rather than discontinued.

A history of continuing support

If your model hit the discontinued list, don’t worry. Garmin has a strong history of supporting such models for years after pulling the plug. And we’ll probably still see them in the market for quite a while too.

 

About Rich Owings

Rich is the owner, editor and chief bottle-washer for GPS Tracklog. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus.

Comments

  1. I’m wondering why. Is it simply because they’re under-selling or is there a more sinister reason?

    • In an age where your electronic devices are obsolete about the time you get them in the mail, it’s no surprise to see the rapid turnover of model numbers by Garmin. Pure marketing, “Oh I have last years model? Well I wonder what this years models have to offer.” It works and I even find myself succumbing to that marketing trick, heck most of us do.

  2. Michael Moonitz says:

    Am somewhat interested in upgrading from my trusty 1490t to a 2597, after most of the bugs are removed. Why can’t Garmin just produce a simple dependable navigator without all the extraneous crap, but still including traffic and Bluetooth. Never understood the angst about lifetime maps, unless you live an area where the roads change regularly. I would rather just buy a new nuvi than go thru all the inevitable trouble and problems with updating maps. Had found out the hard way you couldn’t update the 1490 map since it did not have enough memory.

  3. And just now I find that the NuLink service will be discontinued March 5, 2015, when I tried to renew it for my 1695 yesterday for a trip through some nasty weather (traffic and weather NuLink service has been helpful in the past), but I missed the deadline for renewal by 2 (3?) days. Could Garmin not have sent a warning notice BEFORE this deadline? I did get a renewal reminder late last year, but just did not have any big travel plans needing it at that time, but there was no notice that it would be my “final chance”.

    A discussion of this over on GPSPassion site had the statement that the provider, AT&T, filed a SEC notice that they would be discontinuing 2G “Edge” service (which NuLink depends on) in 2017, so why is NuLink being dropped 2 YEARS before that?

    Could I open the unit, and put my T-Mobile pay/go SIM in place of the AT&T SIM, or is that function hardwired? Has AT&T also been providing the traffic info, thus making any other carrier’s network moot?

    What are my options now for a Garmin with “Lifetime” (yeah, right) traffic? Is there an Android app with the Garmin (or equivalent PND) interface that I could use on a phablet phone like my Galaxy Note 2?

    I really hate Google Maps’ miserable interface – not at all eye- and finger-friendly while driving compared to a real PND, due to the tininess of the display widgets, and controls (although, interestingly, recent Motorola droids like my Bionic and Razr HD “alter” GMaps a bit when plugged into a Moto travel dock for the phone to provide a few big control buttons down the right edge, and show the speed on the display, albeit almost unreadable a in its outline format – showing a clue that someone, Moto?, “gets it” but still a long way from full PND ergonomics).

    TIA,
    RO

  4. Mike Lamb says:

    I am interested in the 3580LMT. You say nothing about it anywhere.

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