Santa Clara,
Calif. – Magellan is out to one-up the competition in a challenging navigation
market by offering free lifetime traffic updates in all nine of the new
portable navigation devices (PNDs) that it rolled out at expected retails of
$169 to $299.
The flagship model
is touted as the industry’s only model that wakes itself up at specific times
of the day to load traffic updates into memory. With the Traffic Wake-up
feature, the RoadMate 3065 Commuter wake itself up twice a day 30 minutes
before a driver’s regular commute begins, enabling the PND to calculate an
optimum route to or from work based on traffic conditions.
Another custom
Commuter feature, called Periodic Reporting, provides detailed information to
track mileage for expense reports and tax purposes. This allows a user to track
their mileage and use this information for business expense reports and year-end
tax filing, all with a touch of a button. It also focuses on flow reporting that
detects traffic congestion and not just reported accidents.
All models, whose
touchscreen sizes range from 4.3 inches to 5 inches, feature spoken street
name, 6 million points of interest, QuickSpell technology for error-free
address entry, multi-destination routing, and OneTouch personalization feature
to save favorite places, categories and searches. Each RoadMate also comes with
such parking features as automatic parking lot finder, which identifies local
parking lots by a destination. The PND’s find-your-car feature records the
location of your parked car and directs you to it when you carry the PND with
you.
Most models also
include highway-lane assist and the Magellan-exclusive AAA Tourbook, which
includes restaurant and hotel information.
Select models are also available with “free”
future map upgrades. The RoadMate 3045-LM comes with a lifetime upgrade option
that lets users upgrade maps four times a year for the life of the product at
no additional charge.
The new models
include four 4.3-inch models in the RoadMate 2000 series. The RoadMate 2035
features maps of the contiguous United States and Puerto Rico. The RoadMate
2036 adds Canadian map coverage, built-in AAA Tourbook, and Roadside Assistance
and Highway Lane Assist. The Roadmate 2045 adds a MicroSD slot.
The new RoadMate
3000 series features four 4.7-inch models. The RoadMate 3045 has maps of the
United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The RoadMate 3045-LM adds Free Lifetime
Maps. The RoadMate 3055 adds to the 3045’s features with Bluetooth and voice
dialing. The flagship RoadMate 3065 Commuter model adds the Traffic Wake-up and
Periodic Reporting features.
Finally, the
RoadMate 5045 adds a 5-inch screen to the 3045’s feature set.
All are available
at retail stores and Magellan’s Web site.
