It's official: TomTom - Third party POI Alerts R Not Us

Well, here's a great big honking surprise. Not.

Having just read the article over at Pocket GPS World (click for article in a new window), I can't really say I'm too surprised. It's about TomTom, after all.

TomTom's ability to accept 3rd party POI lists that you could tailor an alert to, was a major selling point - indeed, it was why the first satnav package that I ever bought for my smartphone a few years back was made by TomTom.

Then their customer services went over a cliff, plunging groundwards as if propelled by rockets.

First, they failed to reply to enquiries; then, they failed to update mapping - even if a fee was required. Then they failed - nay, refused - to update the software, with the "read between the lines" comments being that software piracy was obviously to blame for a loss of sales - what utter and complete rot. It was their failure to maintain and update the software for smartphones that was the cause of the loss of sales: Common sense would have told them that, had they paid attention.

Then, when a major manufacturer (HTC) released a brand new smartphone, they up and generated a bundled version for the German Market release of that phone only, tied to one network.

The release was then widened to a couple more models of phone (still a bundled release), and eventually,and grudgingly, released to retail: It was still a generation behind their stand alone Personal Navigation Device (PND) releases, however.

Now, yet again, TomTom's institutional arrogance seems to have no limits. Having captured a significant proportion of the market with their support for 3rd party POI warning-capable lists with easily adjustable warning features (distance to warning, sound used, and so on) - NOT just speed cameras, but such things as supermarket, petrol stations, banks, Cash machines, and Post Office locations, which many folks find exceedingly useful on a daily basis, TomTom have apparently decided that we cannot be trusted to use such a feature responsibly. They said:

TomTom has stopped supporting 3rd party POI proximity warning sounds in speed camera products

For a DUTCH company to make a read-between-the-lines comment like this is gob-smackingly astounding - The Netherlands are supposed to be a haven for liberal views and thinking. Not for TomTom any more, it seems. Well, OK, they have a right to form their own opinions: It's a relatively free world, after all.

But for TomTom to have the arrogance of then removing a previously free feature that helped to sell their products, by a read-between-the-lines comment that we cannot be trusted to use this feature responsibly, is totally unacceptable. The era of Nanny-Life-Management is over, TomTom. Wake up: We're adults, not children.

It's more likely, frankly, that in developing new versions of the package, they want to simplify the software, thus reducing the development costs. I can follow that line of thinking a damn sight more understandably. We're in the midst of a depression, after all.

In short though, it's yet another damn good reason to tell TomTom go take a long hike off a short pier.

I'm sure their own POI lists will warn them in time that they're going to have to brake hard to avoid going off the pier, after all...