Garmin is entering the Laptop PC, TabletPC, and UMPC market with its Garmin Mobile PC

Marvin,

I don't know about who has it soonest but I have found GPS Central in Calgary to be dead stone reliable. If they say it's in stock you can count on it. If you have the slightest question about anything just call their toll-free number and talk to a real live person. The foundation of their business is industrial (oil/gas, survey, etc.) so they have to be very knowledgeable about the technology they sell, unlike the companies that service mostly consumers.

Oh yeah, they're in Calgary so no issues with trans-border stuff.

...ken...

Ken, I'll keep that in mind, thanks. My problem is just that I was impatient, and I wanted to get my hands on Garmin Mobile PC as soon as possible...

I just received e-mail from Garmin - a review copy of Garmin Mobile PC is on its way from Garmin: "Pending customs, I’m guessing it should arrive on Thursday." The one I ordered from TigerGPS on Sunday, if I get lucky, will arrive this afternoon (Wednesday), or more likely on Thursday as well.

I'll look forward to your impressions, Marvin. Do you also have nroute to compare it to and see if there are significant enhancements?

...ken...

I suspect it will look similar to the existing PDA Mobile XT version with the next street ribbon on the top and the speed and heading /ETA on the bottom. The routing layout will also be the same, possibly with a qwerty keyboard though as there is more screen real estate. Spoken street names are also listed as a benefit. nRoute uses a lot of screen on a UMPC and is not friendly to the lack of a keyboard.

Terry

Yes, it will likely be similar to Nuvi PNDs. I have not tried nRoute myself - I was going to, when I first open this website 6 months ago, because I wanted to write a review for the new site. But then I found out Garmin was going to release this new Garmin Mobile PC, so I never bothered with nRoute anymore. Do you guys think there is future for Garmin nRoute after Garmin Mobile PC?

There has been no "marketing" of nroute for the very good reason that it generates no revenue for Garmin, other than the potential for future map upgrades. So the new product will do well, or at least better than nroute, simply because people will know about it.

With nroute there is not even a "present", never mind a future, for it because it's not promoted. As far as I know hardly anyone knows about nroute, including current Garmin customers with Garmin map products and Mapsource. Of the few that are even aware of its existance, I would bet that an even smaller percentage know where to find it.

...ken...

Marvin,
nRoute is Garmin's replacement for the routing functions of Map Source. I think it looks great on a laptop. Unfortunately, I haven't used a laptop in a vehicle since the days of Delorme's Map'n'Go so I can't comment on its usefulness in a real world situation. I suspect it would be fine.

Get a copy. Its free and will use whatever Garmin map you have unlocked to your GPS. Or use Metroguide Canada v4 if you have it as its not locked.

Terry

Hi Terry,

A little history ... Garmin created nroute for those folks who bought Garmin's wireless GPS (GPS10, GPS20, etc.) receivers and wanted to be able to use them with their laptops.

They originally didn't expect this sort of thing. They thought everyone would use them with PDAs and Mobile XT or Que. That's why they packaged them that way (although they did make the receivers available as stand-alone products). They found that people with the PDA products wanted to also use the receivers with their laptops. And a few of the people who bought the stand-alone receivers also asked for that capability.

So they had to scramble to provide some sort of alternative for those who wanted to do it on their laptops to keep them from defecting to S&T or some other product.

nroute was a hack of Mapsource to add nav capabilities in a really big hurry. That way, anyone familiar with Mapsource can start using nroute almost immediately. And naturally it instantly works with any Garmin map products already installed in Mapsource.

They must have seen enough potential market out there to do a "proper" laptop product, which we are now seeing released.

Ain'tcha glad ya ast???

...ken...

Marvin,

Here's the link to the nroute page on Garmin's site.

...ken...

Ken,
As a GPS10 (serial) owner, I thought MapSource still had GPS functionality at that time. The nRoute interface was certainly nicer but MapSource was usable until the GPS functionality was dropped in later versions. Unfortunately, I don't have a version older than 6.1 to check.
Terry

Only minutes ago I got my package. The shipment from Garmin arrived first, I'm not sure what happened to the box from TigerGPS, which I though would arrive sooner.

Here it is... just very quickly, as I have to leave home within minutes...

Marvin, I can't wait to here your opinion on this. I have been waiting for someone to review it. If all goes well then I'll be placing an order for my laptop.

Thanks again for a great website.

Wow! Big box for a small product.
I too am looking forward to your review. My main interest is how it will look on a small screen though.Keep the great info coming.

Terry

I just received my copy of the software only. Looks ok on my UMPC, not quite as clean as iNAV4. This did come with the 2009 version of Garmin maps. This does include street addresses in Ladysmith (hooray).

One problem installing it was entering the product key; the on-board keyboard would not work,mouse right-click paste would not work. I finally had to hook up Bluetooth keyboard just to type it in.

Now, the major problem. I cannot get it to find either of my Garmin Bluetooth GPS devices. I tried with the laptop and the UMPC