The company focused on corporate handheld device software before focusing on the consumer market and releasing the first route planning software for mobile devices in 1996. The company was founded in Amsterdam in 1991 as Palmtop Software, by Corinne Vigreux, Peter-Frans Pauwels and Pieter Geelen. As of 2019 the company has over 4,500 employees worldwide and operations in 29 countries throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Is your TomTom among the affected devices? Will you be buying another one from the firm? Drop us a line on Twitter.TomTom N.V.

With the expansion of Android Auto and Apple Car play and the ever-growing use of smartphones as GPS devices, one wonders if any of these customers will bother.

“This may be the perfect opportunity to discover what our new range of navigation products has to offer you,” the firm told customers. Oh, is that so TomTom? Rather than offering customers a pathway to easy upgrades, TomTom simply suggested drivers buy a new one. “A device will have reached the end of its life when none of these are available any more.”

the period of time TomTom supports your device with updates, services, content or accessories,” it wrote. “Lifetime means the useful life of the device, i.e. The Dutch company also tried to clarify (or redefine) its promise of a lifetime guarantee of new maps. The list of affected devices can be viewed here. This means older devices don’t have the ability to store much more in terms of new updates.

The company explains the size of a European map has grown by 5GB (from 1.6GB to 6.5GB) since 2015. “It has become clear that some of our older generation navigation devices do not have sufficient resources to run the newest maps and software.” “Your maps will become out-of-date and as such navigation will be less accurate,” TomTom told customers in an email (via BBC). Once active subscriptions have expired, the models won’t become completely obsolete, but owners won’t receive the most current information. The change applies to buyers of 66 older models, who were promised ‘lifetime maps’ when they purchased the in-car navigation tool. TomTom has informed a number of customers their sat-nav devices will no longer receive map updates.

Free update for tomtom maps