skunksoup Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Why do I keep reading and hearing that Garmin has abandoned the Colorado? Does this mean they will not continue to update the software? Are these just assumptions and no one really knows but Garmin? Can someone enlighten me here? Thanks Quote Link to comment
+g-o-cashers Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Probably not abandoned but it does seem to be in "maintenance mode", which means all it is getting at this point is a few bug fixes from Garmin. Most of the big online outdoor retailers seem to have stopped carrying the Colorado in favor of the Oregon. If I look a traffic on my wikis and ownership/reviews on Groundspeak you'll see that the Oregon interest and ownership is about 1.5x to 2x the Colorado and it came out in July, six months after the Colorado. I'm guessing Garmin will sell it for another 6-8 months, maybe up until the holidays with some really good Xmas deals but I don't see it going much further as a product line. Quote Link to comment
+Tequila Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Garmin is a publicly traded company and you won't see them announce an EOL on a product too fast. They will want to clear out inventory first. I doubt they are manufacturing any new units. Quote Link to comment
+splashy Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 They announced Oregon with build in camera and a new type called Basecamp and some sort of new dash type will popup also. See http://garmin.blogs.com/pr/2009/01/ Quote Link to comment
robertlipe Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Another telling sign is the amount of activity in the firmware updates. I bought a CO based on the assumption that they'd continue to fix what was, at the time, their flagship product for a while. They've certainly done so in the past. For CO and OR to obviously share DNA, the OR code base seems to be actively updated while the CO appears to be in bugfix-only mode already. Quote Link to comment
MtnHermit Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 If you decide to buy a Colorado, buy it for what it is today, not any expectation of what it might be tomorrow. I did in Dec. I find it to be feature rich and bug free with a great screen, but not perfect. My only real beef is the black track when all other (eTrex, OR, 60/76) Garmin's offer many track color choices. I have no plans to upgrade until the 5x7" OLED roll-out screen model appears. Clearly I have a long wait. Quote Link to comment
+Marky Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Because of how fast Garmin abandoned the Colorado line, I don't plan to ever buy another Garmin. I might change my mind if Garmin offered to upgrade my Colorados to Oregons for a nominal fee. --Marky Quote Link to comment
+RonFisk Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Because of how fast Garmin abandoned the Colorado line, I don't plan to ever buy another Garmin. I might change my mind if Garmin offered to upgrade my Colorados to Oregons for a nominal fee. --Marky They did offer that option at one time. It's my understanding that they no longer offer an exchange. Several people I know took advantage of the offer. I was tempted, but my latest Colorado (I've had five) is working fine and I don't really care for the Oregon. I would like to see Garmin lift the Colorado up to the Oregon, feature wise, but I'm not holding my breath... Quote Link to comment
+Tequila Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 (edited) Because of how fast Garmin abandoned the Colorado line, I don't plan to ever buy another Garmin. I might change my mind if Garmin offered to upgrade my Colorados to Oregons for a nominal fee. --Marky They upgraded mine for free. Edited March 24, 2009 by Tequila Quote Link to comment
+xshooter Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 According to an email response I got from Garmin they are coming out with an update for the CO soon and are still supporting it. Quote Link to comment
MtnHermit Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 According to an email response I got from Garmin they are coming out with an update for the CO soon and are still supporting it.Who'd thunk!!! Thanks for the post. Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I posted in December that a Garmin rep told me the Colorado line is still active and supported. Too many assumptions...... Quote Link to comment
skunksoup Posted March 25, 2009 Author Share Posted March 25, 2009 I called Garmin this evening and was told by the Rep that it is still supported. He also made the commit that he reads the forums often and he thought that when the CO first came out it made a lot of people unhappy with all the issues it had and there is still a lot of bad blood there? And that there is an update coming out???? Quote Link to comment
+g-o-cashers Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Yeah, but there's a difference between releasing software with a handful of bug fixes every 6 months versus bringing the features and performance on the Colorado up to where the Oregon currently is. I don't think you'll see Garmin do the latter but, sure, we'll keep seeing maintenance releases with bug fixes for quite a long time (I received some email from Garmin several days ago indicating that they were going to fix the issue on the Colorado when it starts up with an active autoroute.) Quote Link to comment
+Timpat Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I had contacted Garmin via email and received this reply regarding our Colorado. "Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I would be happy to assist. We are still making all the Colorado devices and supporting them. Colorado units are still selling quite well and have not forgotten those like yourself who have purchased these. Currently, no future firmware updates are scheduled to include a track manager feature like the Oregon has. We do understand how beneficial this may be for the Colorado. I know this has been suggested to our engineers for future firmware updates, but do not know at this time when or if this will be released for the Colorado." Quote Link to comment
MtnHermit Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 "Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I would be happy to assist. We are still making all the Colorado devices and supporting them. Colorado units are still selling quite well and have not forgotten those like yourself who have purchased these. Currently, no future firmware updates are scheduled to include a track manager feature like the Oregon has. We do understand how beneficial this may be for the Colorado. I know this has been suggested to our engineers for future firmware updates, but do not know at this time when or if this will be released for the Colorado." Polite, professional and not what I wanted to hear. Thanks for the post. Quote Link to comment
+g-o-cashers Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I called Garmin this evening and was told by the Rep that it is still supported. He also made the commit that he reads the forums often and he thought that when the CO first came out it made a lot of people unhappy with all the issues it had and there is still a lot of bad blood there? And that there is an update coming out???? The Colorado definitely got a bad name because of the issues it had early on. In my mind the first stable official release was 2.6 in July -- that was six months after it came out. In those six months Garmin had a lot of frustrated Colorado users. To make matters worse they didn't fix the drift problem until 2.7/2.8 which came out in October, 9-10 months after the introduction. This issue affected some people more than others but there was a lot of bad press on the issue (myself included). Now that these issues have been resolved I think the Colorado is a decent unit especially given some of the price breaks you can get on the unit. Like someone earlier in the thread said -- if you take it for what it is today and don't expect the Colorado be getting any new features, you'll be happy. Quote Link to comment
Papu Sullivan Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 I got my Colorado 400T for $350 from a Best Buy store. I could not pass on the deal. I have been using for about 2 weeks and it is very good unit. I have almost all the functionality of the Oregon, except of the touch screen, which I do not really care for ($250 difference?). I can put my cadence sensor, HR, etc. I was a bit frustrated at the begining, but after reading the Colorado wiki, about how ot manage the power, backlight, etc. I am very happy! Quote Link to comment
+Tequila Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Here is a pretty good indication where Garmin's efforts are being focused. More improvements to the Oregon. Looks like the OR is the platform of choice for Garmin going forward. Quote Link to comment
+qlenfg Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Here is a pretty good indication where Garmin's efforts are being focused. More improvements to the Oregon. Looks like the OR is the platform of choice for Garmin going forward. Sorry, the link that brought you to this page seems to be out of date or broken. Quote Link to comment
+Tequila Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Here is a pretty good indication where Garmin's efforts are being focused. More improvements to the Oregon. Looks like the OR is the platform of choice for Garmin going forward. Sorry, the link that brought you to this page seems to be out of date or broken. The Moderator merged two topics. Try this. Quote Link to comment
+Prime Suspect Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 According to an email response I got from Garmin they are coming out with an update for the CO soon and are still supporting it. "Support" doesn't mean much. It means they'll put out bug fixes until most of the major issues have been resolved. It means that if you send it in, they'll fix it under warranty, or for a fee. It doesn't necessarily mean there will be any software enhancements coming down the pike, or any new models in the Colorado line. Quote Link to comment
+DavidMac Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 The Colorado definitely got a bad name because of the issues it had early on. In my mind the first stable official release was 2.6 in July -- that was six months after it came out. In those six months Garmin had a lot of frustrated Colorado users. To make matters worse they didn't fix the drift problem until 2.7/2.8 which came out in October, 9-10 months after the introduction. This issue affected some people more than others but there was a lot of bad press on the issue (myself included). Now that these issues have been resolved I think the Colorado is a decent unit especially given some of the price breaks you can get on the unit. Like someone earlier in the thread said -- if you take it for what it is today and don't expect the Colorado be getting any new features, you'll be happy. That sums it up pretty well. My perception is that the consensus (at least on this board) is that the CO was released too early. This has led to an overall attitude toward these models that they haven't really been able to overcome. While Garmin has done a great job working out many of the serious bugs that plagued the early units, they've been very selective about what features and interface changes have been made to the software. Now, I've seen bug fixes and usability changes that I personally reported that were later fixed (little things such as the inconsistency of button actions on geocaching and new log screens that was fixed in an early update, for example), but there has since been a widening disparity between features that have been added to the CO and OR. Early on, this board was full of wishlists for bug fixes and missing features in the CO line, with many people expressing a desire for features such as a track manager, the ability to view the entire coordinates of a waypoint when editing, or a text entry method that isn't absolutely painful. Some of us felt that these lists were largely ignored by Garmin... until feature suggestions from the Colorado started showing up on the Oregon in software updates, but not on the CO. While I've been very happy with my CO and now use it almost exclusively, this has made some of us (myself included) feel like Garmin has left us behind in favor of the OR. Someone at one point made a statement to the effect that us CO users felt like we were being used as beta testers for an early model Oregon without a touch screen. Well, some of us can't, or don't want to, use a touch screen GPS. Why not keep the feature set between the two product lines identical? I guess it makes sense to Garmin, but it doesn't to me. Quote Link to comment
+Timpat Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Here, here! Well put and my thoughts precisely! Quote Link to comment
+Tequila Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I am not convinced the OR and CO were developed together. There are too many differences. I think they were developed in parallel with little if any dialog between the two teams. The OR retains the microSD card and a much more reliable back cover, etc. I had 3 CO's and all three leaked water into the battery compartment. I understand Garmin has developed a new back cover that is better. There was only one feature on the CO that I miss on the OR: Detour. It was cool to be able to hit Detour and get a different route. The Detour function is one of the reasons I doubt they were developed together. I was able to get Garmin to give me an OR to replace the CO. And I am glad I did. The OR is almost as reliable as the 60CSx. Quote Link to comment
+geognerd Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 One thing that is telling is that Garmin released an Oregon 200 but not a Colorado 200. They will support the Colorado, as Prime Suspect said, but Garmin's actions indicate that they are more interested in developing the Oregon line. Quote Link to comment
+Scoff Cruddle Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Got a problem with my Colorado's wheel so I sent Garmin an e-mail. I also attached a question about updates for the unit, as I have spent £115 on a GB Discoverer map for it. There were early problems on the Oregon and Colorado with this map series, but they have ironed these out with software updates on the Oregon, so I assumed they would also do that for the Colorado, but not so far. So my question was. "Also I notice tonight there is yet another update to the Oregon software just released (2.94), again the GB Discoverer use is improved. Any chance of letting me know when/if an update is forthcoming for the Colorado and if that will help get rid of the dual road problems and poor display quality of the Discoverer series. Hate to think I've wasted £115." The reply was as follows With regards to the software updates that have been released for the Oregon these are beta software updates so are only in a test format. If these are successfully with the Oregon then they will also be released for the Colorado. I hope this helps. Make of that wht you will Scoff Quote Link to comment
+stepshep Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 <rant>What irks me is that I bought the CO, and a few days later a new thread was started on the forums that Garmin announced the OR. When I contacted Garmin they said they would only let me switch if I paid an extra $200 for the dang thing. I got it mid-July (I think) so it was only $350 to begin with... I'm just happy I don't have too much time to to cache or I would be ticked that I don't have an OR, nor can I afford to buy one at this point.</endrant> Quote Link to comment
+Gushoneybun Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Got a problem with my Colorado's wheel so I sent Garmin an e-mail. I also attached a question about updates for the unit, as I have spent £115 on a GB Discoverer map for it. There were early problems on the Oregon and Colorado with this map series, but they have ironed these out with software updates on the Oregon, so I assumed they would also do that for the Colorado, but not so far. So my question was. "Also I notice tonight there is yet another update to the Oregon software just released (2.94), again the GB Discoverer use is improved. Any chance of letting me know when/if an update is forthcoming for the Colorado and if that will help get rid of the dual road problems and poor display quality of the Discoverer series. Hate to think I've wasted £115." The reply was as follows With regards to the software updates that have been released for the Oregon these are beta software updates so are only in a test format. If these are successfully with the Oregon then they will also be released for the Colorado. I hope this helps. Make of that wht you will Scoff I emailed Garmin as well and got a very similar reply. Like Scoff it was also the UK head office that replied. There was another line on my reply saying something to the effect that where the Oregon updates would enhance the Colorado that they will be relased for the CO and an update is due shortly???? Quote Link to comment
+9shoes Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 I see in the new Costco magazine that on 4/1/09 they will offer online a Colorado 300 for $249 delivered. That usually infers outdated but I think for geocaching it will be good enough for me. The one I'm using now is etrex of year 2001. Seems to be failing a bit though I did find a cache today. by the way. last week I found two caches while in Israel. That's when I noticed lines on the screen for quite a while before it could read the signals. It is burning batteries faster now also. Anyway, the 300 should be quite an upgrade for me. Quote Link to comment
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