If you were already in doubt weather or not you should purchase a Garmin PND or not, here's a good argument to stop doubting: with the launch of the new Garmin Nüvi 660, Garmin has also announced a pretty big (advised retail) price cut for all their navigational devices.Wow
There's one word which came to mind when we first learned about these price cuts: wow! A Nüvi 310 and a Nüvi 310 DeLuxe instantly become more than ¤ 100,- (£ 68,-) cheaper. A Nüvi 350 and 360 now sell for ¤ 170,- (£ 115,-) less, and a Streetpilot C550 now even costs ¤ 225,- (£ 150,-) less.Said price cuts are valid for the recommended retail prices which Garmin uses towards their sales channels. It's up to those channels to translate those price cuts into real prices. And they do! Until recently, the price for a Nüvi 360 was ¤ 749,- (£ 499,-), now it's ¤ 599,- (£ 399)! The Streetpilot C550, which sold for ¤ 699,- (£ 470,-) until a few days ago, now sells for only ¤ 499,- (£ 330,-)!
Shift
The new Garmin prices cause a big shift in PND land. Because up till recently, Nüvi's were considered to be very advanced devices, with a pretty hefty price tag. But with these new prices, the new Top-op-the-range model, the Nüvi 660, will become dozens of euro's cheaper than TomTom's high-end unit, the TomTom 910. And both devices have a very comparable feature set.If we add the other two big PND manufacturers (Mio and Navman) to this, then the chart displayed below gives a good indication and comparison of the creme de la creme of the current market. We base this information on actual prices which we were able to find at several online-shops.
 |  |  |  | |
| PND | GO 910 | Nüvi 660 | C710 | iCN 750 |
| Price in shops | ¤ 659,-/£ 445,- | ¤ 599,-/£ 399,- | ¤ 457,-/£ 307,- | ¤ 499,-/£ 335,- |
| Screen | 4 inch | 4,3 inch | 3,5 inch | 4 inch |
| Supplied maps | Europe + US | Europe | Europe | Europe |
| Hands free phoning | v | v | v | x |
| Text-to-speech | v | v | x | x |
| Traffic info | v(GPRS; TMC optional) | v(TMC) | v(TMC) | x (TMC optional) |
| MP3 player | v | v | v | x |
Above mentioned price for the upcoming Nüvi 660 is based on the fact that this PND has the same recommended retail price as the Nüvi 360, and the latter mentioned is now in the shops for ¤ 599,- (£399,-).
It's clear to everyone that TomTom is the loser in this list. With regards to functionality, it's especially Navman who is lacking a bit. On the other hand, the iCN 750 is the only PND out there which features a built-in photo camera.
We can only assume that Garmin's price cuts will be an incentive for the other manufacturers to also alter their prices. We especially expect something from European market leader TomTom in that regard. Because ¤ 60,- (£ 40,- ) of difference between the GO 910 and the Nüvi 660 *is* a lot of money. We'll keep a close eye on things to come...
