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“Lifetime”

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“Lifetime”

Postby Rod » 06 May 2018, 14:22

For quite a few years I’ve been using the Garmin GB & IRL sat Nav app on my smartphone which I bought with a “Lifetime” of free upgrades. I like it very much as it includes a lot of useful features like live traffic etc.
How do they get out of this “Lifetime” feature, they pull the plug on it. It upgraded recently with the message “that from the 14 May it will no longer be available and supported though existing uses can continue to use it for another two years”.
It seems that they are bringing out another version called StreetPilot which will require a new payment!!
Searching the net - lots of complaints from folks that have recently just bought the original version to find its going to be scrapped!!
It’s seems that Garmin are not the only ones to have done this, I read that Tom Tom did it a while back as well as others.
Shady practice.

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Re: “Lifetime”

Postby Robert » 06 May 2018, 23:15

I guess it is the lifetime of the device not the user - and they decide the products end of life when they no longer make it.

I very rarely use navigation on the phone but when I have it has either been Waze or just google maps. Both use google traffic which is nearly always accurate as it uses all our android phones movements to monitor traffic flow.

Don't know if I turned something on in google maps but I now get emailed occasional summaries of my travels listing where I've been and visited. Big brother is watching me.
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Re: “Lifetime”

Postby Rod » 06 May 2018, 23:56

Certainly not the life of the device as it’s an app.
I suppose I cannot complain too much as I bought it several years ago on special offer for about £20.
My car has built in navigation buts it’s very clunky and tedious to set up and doesn’t always give the best routes.
My Garmin one lets me put in via points to go the way I want to go. I can do it in the comfort of the house and check it’s where I want to go. It’s search facilities are very good too and it gives live traffic results for the route, camera positions, actual speed and speed limit of the road being used.

No doubt I’ll end up forking out for the replacement which will probably be on a subscription basis so no “free” Lifetime upgrades.
I’ve got Waze but find it often crashes.
I always check google maps whenever the journey takes me through J9 of the M3 - a notorious local bottle neck.

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Re: “Lifetime”

Postby Andyp » 07 May 2018, 08:56

Lifetime free upgrades are a business model that is never going to work.

I was late to the Sat Nav party and have only had one since 2016. CoPilot. I paid £23. I have not paid for a map upgrade yet and have had three. It comes with active traffic but as I wont pay for mobile data I do not use it.
I paid for the whole of Europe but I only download the relevant countries as and when I need them thereby saving storage space on the phone.
I also bought the NE USA last year for our hols.

I have no complaints.
I do not think therefore I do not am.

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Re: “Lifetime”

Postby Rod » 07 May 2018, 11:19

I bought my first sat Nav ( a Garmin StreetPilot) about 20yrs ago in the States. It was the size of a half brick and came with USA, Canada and Mexico mapping. I bought European mapping later. You had to download to a PC and then transfer the area you required to the unit using memory cards.
I later upgraded to a Garmin Nuvi with “Lifetime” North American and European mapping. Processed in a similar way as the StreetPilot.
I shall have to download the latest maps in case that gets pulled too but I very rarely use it as I prefer my phone version.
I feel very sorry for the folks that have just bought the current app to find it has been pulled. And relieved that I didn’t buy the Heads-up adapter and extra software for another £50.

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Re: “Lifetime”

Postby TrimTheKing » 08 May 2018, 12:58

Standard practice I'm afraid. It's for the lifetime of the device/software, not you the user. As soon as the software is defunct they put out the following notices:

EoS - End of Sale, date they will stop selling it.
EoSup - End of Support, date they will stop developing any form of updates for it.
EoL - Date they stop supporting/Maintaining it. This EoL date is generally 5 years from the date the EoL notice is put out, at least in the Enterprise world it is.

From the moment EoL is reached you're on your own, and this has always been the case. Nothing shady about it, you cannot expect them to keep developing a defunct piece of software ad infinitum.

I agree though that the EoL notice should have been out in the public domain for people to know about when they come to purchase. Do you know whether it was and you just missed it?
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Re: “Lifetime”

Postby Rod » 09 May 2018, 09:40

The app did an automatic upgrade on the 4th with an accompanying message:

Image

Effectively 10 days notice - looking on the web there are complaints from folks who bought it only 3wks ago.

I’ve had my monies worth from it so no real complaints about that - it’s just the use of the term “Lifetime” I’m annoyed at.

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Re: “Lifetime”

Postby TrimTheKing » 09 May 2018, 12:36

Yeah that's a bit poor in terms of notice.
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Re: “Lifetime”

Postby Rod » 11 May 2018, 13:16

I checked out my Nuvi, which I bought in 2011 and downloaded the latest updates - nice to see it’s not affected by the App withdrawal and it’s “Lifetime” promise of free upgrades is still valid.

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