Comments

• dhn Posts: 33,341
  Superusers

  August 2017

  I'm in Canada and the situation is even worse here. North America marketing has never been terrific (except for the year Tomtom sponsored a NASCAR car some years ago) and Garmin has always been #1 here with few challengers.
  
  I thought Costco US did carry Tomtoms. Costco here has never done so.
  
  Best Buy here usually does carry a model or two of Tomtom but their whole GPS display area (all brands) has diminished over the years.

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• tfarabaugh Posts: 16,622
  Superusers

  August 2017

  I think it is a reflection of the marked reduction in the use of standalone SatNavs in the US (most people use their phones) and the dominance of Garmin in the market. With reduced demand, stores are not dedicating the display space for them they used to and are fine with just having a single brand as it is not a lucrative area for them. You see the same thing in sports watches, where it is all Garmin and FitBit and it is hard to find anything else because those brands totally dominate the market. Combine this with the decline in brick and mortar stores and the rise of e-commerce and it is just going to get worse. TT have already acknowledged their struggles in (and potential exit from) the sports watch market, and a similar retraction may be happening in SatNavs, at least in parts of the world where demand has dropped precipitously (I understand they are still used more in Europe).

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• WCWalker62 Posts: 23 [Outstanding Explorer]

  August 2017

  Thanks for the feedback. Last night I did a test while running my Garmin with Digital Traffic (GO 52 arrives today via USPS) head to head against Waze and Maps on my Android phone. Garmin Traffic accurately picked up the large traffic jam in downtown Cincinnati while neither Waze or Maps found it. I was able to detour around it and avoid a half hour delay. I've done head to head comparisons with my Tom Tom Via 1510 with RDS traffic and the Garmin and it is still pretty accurate though slower of course. Precisely why I am getting the GO 52. Garmin routing is not very good and if it were not for the reliable traffic on the unit, I would have replaced it a few months after the initial purchase.
  
  Unless the apps can improve traffic reporting, I won't be using them much except when I can't find a address with the GO 52. While the apps are excellent at routing and finding obscure addresses such as new housing developments, the traffic reporting on both leaves a lot to be desired. RDS traffic on the Via is better.

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• big Posts: 1,633
  Superuser

  September 2017

  RDS traffic is far inferior to TomTom's live traffic, however, so it's not a particularly fair comparison.

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