UPDATE: See Caleb’s comment below for information on shipping.
DeLorme.com is now accepting pre-orders and has been updated with new content about the PN-40 and the PN-40se.
Those who order first will be at the head of the line for shipments when we receive inventory in late October. We are anticipating tight inventories at product launch so encourage you to get your order in now if you are serious about ordering either model. The SE model will only be available direct from DeLorme.
Check out the Flash demo for some videos detailing the performance of the PN-40.
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Any news on when my PN 40, Order # 5583332, will be shiped?
Thanks, Tim
I have already placed my SE order. On the contents picture there is an SD card – is that included? If so how much memory? If not, what would be the best size (memory size I mean) for the unit? PS if you don’t include the card, please alter the picture…..
I have pre-ordered the SE. how are we with the shipping date??. Is the SD card included? and do i need it the added onboard memory??
Will we have instructions on how to download maps with the purchase maps subscription??
thanks
Wondering how the PN-40′s are coming? I pre ordered last week and looking very forward to getting it Thanks.
We’re very excited here too. I’m hearing that we could be shipping very soon. Trust that we want to get devices out to you all as quickly as possible. In light of recent headaches experienced by others in the GPS industry we’re going to make sure that all of our testing specifications are followed and everything is wrapped up nicely before we send any devices out. We don’t want to jeopardize all of our hard work by rushing at the end of this important project.
To answer some of the other questions… we will be including a 1 GB SD card with each PN-40, regular and SE model. I would recommend people buy the SE model to have 8 GB of internal memory and then suggest that they get the largest SD card they can afford. I’m finding the need for more and more aerial imagery as I check out how powerful the maps are on the PN-40. I’ve got all of New England in topographic data, several NOAA charts for the Maine coast, USGS quad maps for the entire state, and high res aerial imagery for all the places that I visit for hiking, geocaching, hunting, snowboarding, and any other activity that will benefit from high detail maps. The Map Library really is a great addition to the package!
The documentation for the PN-40 and Topo USA have both been updated to account for the new functionality associated with these releases. It will be made available in your product box as well as on-line when it is ready.
Thank you for your comments,
Chip Noble
DeLorme
Has the PN-40 been tested at higher speeds, such as in an aircraft (general aviation speeds of 100-150 MPH)? Concerned with the refresh at higher speeds. Trying to get something that I can use in the car, boat, plane, motorcycle, backpacking, without having to buy 2 or 3 separate units.
I leave November 6th for a hunting trip that I ordered my PN-40 and continue to bite my nails hoping to be able to bring along. I have not seen a posting that indicates a change in targeted shipping dates being end of Oct. Should I conider it a possibility to have on my trip?????
Which speed will be required for the SDHC card? Will the Kingston Class 4 be adequate or will we need a class 6 card?
fms
I’ve preordered the standard PN-40 through Amazon.com and was just informed this weekend that my EDA has been changed from tomorrow, 10/28/2008, to between 11/13 and 11/19/2008.
Sadly I’ve waited months for the expected October release of the PN-40 with hopes of acquiring the unit for fall hiking and hunting. After seeing the release date pushed later and later – and now into November I must regrettably forgo my plan to purchase the PN-40 and buy your competitor’s unit. I simply can wait no longer as the fall hunting season begins in three days and I need a GPS for the entire season.
I think it was misleading for you to take pre orders based on an expected October ship date when it must have been pretty clear internally that you wouldn’t make the October date. I work in manufacturing and understand the difficulties involved in the release of a new product but you also need to be honest with your customers.
Frank
Frank,
Sorry you feel the way you do. But please understand that thoroughly testing a complex piece of technology lilke the PN-40 is highly demanding and not as clear-cut as you may think. Pre-production units are run on one manufacturing line, tested, tweaked and then need to go to the main production line process. Something is always lost in translation during this process and in our case it was a very minor concern with the in-line calibration of the accelerometer. This cost us a week to ten days but DeLorme will not ship our customers any unit that we would not accept ourselves.
I am currently using the unit in California and it has been amazing. I no longer need any other unit. So…I hope you’ll change your mind but if you don’t, please try and understand that we did not purposefully start taking orders too soon. We’ve had a minor delay and those who ordered first and are waiting patiently will get their units first. The demand for the first units is exceeding supply so we are scrambling to make more and faster, while not compromising our QA processes.
Back to the SD cards. Is there a limit of size “in the card” that sets the max for the “all you can afford” criteria. I guess my limited knowledge of the technology compares the SD card to a hard-disk on a computer and the internal memory to RAM (while understanding that unlike RAM, the contents aren’t lost from internal memory when power is turned off). If those understandings are correct, my inclination would then be that as much memory that manufacturers can put into the SD “case” could be used by the ’40. Right or wrong?????
Answers:
Steve Brock: I used the PN-40 for a few brief tests while flying to San Francisco. It took a little longer to get a 3-D fix since it was looking out through a small airplane window… once it had the 3-D lock it accurately reported location, speed, and elevation. It was pretty cool to see elevations around 35,000 feet and speeds of 450 mph! I zoomed in to the high detail map scales and didn’t have any problem with the device keeping up. We show regional detail to the .25 mile scale and that worked well. Granted, I didn’t test with the high resolution aerial imagery at the 10 foot scale… but at 450 mph that seems like an unreasonable scale anyway.
Curtis Brumley: Check Caleb’s post above, a week to ten days might push shipping past your November 6th departure. As a hunter myself, I am very sorry for this. I know how valuable the device and map capabilities would have been for your trip.
Marshall Smith: I am not aware of any speed restrictions on the SD Card. Personally I prefer the high speed cards, but have used plenty of the less expensive cards. We did not find any negative impact caused by slower cards and I don’t have any metrics to pass along on comparison testing. Perhaps our beta testers have shared feedback on our public forum.
Thank you for the comments…
Chip Noble
DeLorme
Since it’s getting about time for another upgrade of Topo USA (last new version released in November of 2007), what version will the PN-40 ship with and will there be a “free” upgrade to the new version if it ships with 2007?
Earl: The Earthmate PN-40 will ship with a remastered version of Topo USA 7.0 that has updates for the new device. There will be a certificate in the box for an upgrade to the new release if your purchase was close to the date when the new version came out. I’m going to have to confirm the time frame for the upgrade, I think it was if your purchase was within 30 days of the new release… I’ll check.
Chip Noble
DeLorme
Delorme’s decision to take pre-orders on the PN-40 was an absolutely poor and misleading business practice. What a breach of customer loyalty! I am sure many customers acted, and continue to act, in reliance on the advertised shipping date, foregoing purchasing an alternative for the fall outdoor seasons (e.g. hunting). What is most galling is that this is being spun by Delorme as a noble delay (“we don’t want to ship a defective product”). For the price of the PN-40, a customer should have been able to expect that Delorme had already tested the product. I am sure that Delorme is aware of the actual date that this will ship by, but continues to string its customer base along. I went with Garmin.
A prior post, regarding the current practice of Delorme of accepting pre-orders without first having a product further down the production pipeline, has been pulled. It would be an interesting exercise to determine whether Delorme’s pre-order practice, combined with what might be misleading advertising and “updates,” rise to the level of unfair and deceptive for the purposes of Maine’s UTPA. I for one will wait to see whether they pull this post before I make that assessment. It is OK for a product to be delayed, but it is not OK for Delorme to take pre-orders if it is not more certain of the shipment timeline.
Bob, due to spam posts, we moderate all comments. Today is a Sunday and neither Chip or I were available to approve them earlier. Both are in public view now. -Mike
Delorme has not charged my account for my preorder and they have sent me updates as to what is going on. I think thats great customer service by today’s standard. Yes, I am disappointed by the delay, but I want the features the PN-40 has, so I wait patiently.
Bob: I’m sorry you feel that way. We do our best to coordinate all the moving parts in a product release. As Caleb and I have explained in this blog and on our forums there are times when an unpredicted event occurs and we need to adjust our schedule. As Mike Tillger has pointed out, we’ve posted all schedule changes and contacted all pre-orders to keep them informed. We aren’t putting any spin on the information; we’re just explaining that we chose to delay rather than ship with known issues. It sounds like you’ve been doing a bit of research so I’m sure you’ve read of other releases that might have benefitted from some additional testing. Pre-orders of those devices are much more vocal with their frustrations than any that we’ve seen on our sites. Thank you for commenting though…
Chip Noble
DeLorme
I agree with Mike, taking pre-orders is standard practice, and delays are a common problem of a complex launch. You were not charged on the pre-order. Relax, this is not the end of your world.
I would prefer at least a weekly update, the only updates I have found are on this web site and the details are sparse.
We are on track to begin shipping orders the week of November 17th and appreciate your patience. We are at the mercy of customs, which sometimes throws us a monkey wrench, but I’m optimistic for next week as it looks today. Thanks.
Caleb — yay
General Question about the pre-orders and charging. I have record of my card being processed (I ordered Oct 2nd) do the above posts mean that there was a change and that I will be “really” charged again?
As seen from a few of the recent post people are getting anxious. I am too. I do suggest everyone note that Caleb’s last post says the WEEK of November 17th. That’s does NOT necessarily mean shipments will start on Monday. I too am very excited to see my unit. I am not a PN-20 user so I really am looking forward to a Delorme piece of hardware. I was disappointed on early October about the lack of information being released by Delorme and did voice my concerns. Lately however Caleb and Chip along with others have been very frank with the information they have shared. I commend them for this and agree that delays happen. No one likes them but most of all the seller, since their revenue stream does not start until they can ship product. Pre orders are a benefit to a manufacture to gage and prepare for a new product launch and make sure production is right sized for the demand. However they inevitable last minute Murphy’s Law does create anxiety but the consumers. I just took a deep breath and continue to tell myself it will still be here before Christmas.:-)
Maybe the loyal folks that pre-ordered should get a free car mount. That would settle most disapointments. I pre-ordered PN-40 se.
Jim: Good question and the answer is we have to re-auth credit cards before shipping, which will happen before we ship next week, but no one has been charged yet until we actually ship. Different card companies have different allowable windows for how long they will issue an authorization. I believe VISA, for instance, is only seven days.
As to Murphy and his laws, Murph has shown his head a few times but we keep getting past him. The most recent was with customs but I am told that is behind us. We also have had what I consider to be a healthy process of making last-miniute improvements that have cost us some time but we want to err on the side of quality over fast sales — and trust me, in this current economy there is a lot of pressure to ship but we know we must ship a great product.
We really do appreciate your patience and I will tell you this — for anyone who really wanted a PN-40 or PN-40SE, placing an order well in advance was a good strategy because your orders are in our system and scheduled to ship. New orders coming in may have to compete with other channels looking for supply.
Brian,
Would it be possible for you folks to satisfy my curiosity and at least give us an estimate of the number of pre-orders? I would just like to know how many folks are really serious about the device.
Buz
Buz: we can’t reveal that information for obvious reasons but we are expanding distribution into new places like Costco.com, Walmart.com, The Sports Authority stores and others while getting larger starting orders at the existing retail outlets and trying to fill our direct orders. And also having more large businesses buy them as well for work usages. At least until early December I expect demand to exceed supply but we are doing everything within reason to smooth that out. This is why we started the preordering process so early for direct customers…to make sure those who were most eager were sure to get a unit at launch. It is also why we are only offering the SE edition to direct customers and no where else — a higher-end model for those who are most keen about DeLorme and want something unique. Hope this helps.
I pre ordered a PN-40SE as soon as I got the e-mail. What worries me is that I have not really gotten any confirmation other than on the website when I ordered. My concern that I might have slipped through the cracks happened when a friend of mine who ordered a week or so later got an e-mail about the delay and I did not.
If for some reason I didn’t get in, is Delorme going to continue selling the PN-40SE? Or was it a one off? I would assume that you were probably surprised at the response for the SE.
Good Morning Caleb,
I am going to read between your lines. You are told customs is behind you – so product is released to ship from California? Three day truck rout from California – product should be in house on Tuesday? Packaging a day for initial orders and starting to ship on Wednesday???????????????
Lloyd: I see an October 1st order for an SE to a Lloyd Brown in MT. If that’s you, you should be close to the head of the line for next week. Your email may have gotten caught in a SPAM filter. If that is not you, let me know where you live.
Brian: I think some regular model units should start shipping before Wednesday and the SEs a day or two thereafter — Wed-Friday. The customs issue was overseas, not in the U.S. If this changes, I’ll make a post here. Thanks.
p.s. I once worked with a product coming from Florida that got stuck in a hurricane enroute and all the goods were damaged beyond repair.
Caleb:
Yes, that is me. I was able to get my head straight and see my order was on the website. Of course that was after I posted.
Also looks like one can still order the SE model.
Looking forward to receiving the PN-40SE since my current GPS is a Eagle Explorer which is 11 years old.
Caleb: After viewing your tentative shipping schedule I’m wondering if I will receive my SE I pre-ordered on Oct 1 to be shipped to Orrington, ME before I leave for Colorado on Sunday, Nov 23 for 10 days? It sure would be nice!
I just received a notice this morning from Amazon.com that my pre-order had been processed and shipped today.
Frank,
I think you are one of the lucky ones with a PN-40 SE shipping to you as of today so you should be all set. You were right close to the head of the line. We didn’t get as many SEs in over the weekend as I hoped but still think we will ship them all out over the course of this week for others waiting patiently. If not, I’ll post an update here. Thanks for your business. Reminder — SEs are only available from DeLorme direct.
p.s. I REALLY would not encourage anyone to cancel their order with us for the regular model as some of the online resellers are going to immediately run out of stock and need to reorder based on what I saw here today. And that will take awhile to all turn around.
Caleb, I am in similar situation to Frank and was hoping to see if you can tell me whether my PN-40SE will ship this week. I made my preorder (#5583159) on Oct 1 and payed for next day shipping in hopes that it would arrive before I leave for my hunting trip which starts on the 22nd. Hopefully I’m close enough to the top of the list that it will ship this week.
BTW, I’m glad that Delorme did not compromise the product to rush it out the door.
Thanks,
Tom
When will mine ship and will I have to do a reorder?
Thanks Caleb…not only for your response but what it represents. Where else can one find this kind of service?? Delorme has proven to be responsive to all of their customers’ concerns and suggestions regarding Delorme products which has resulted in a groundbreaking product like the PN-40. Happy to be a part of it!
Per your previous comment it looks as if the SE are being shipped? I received this message about a month ago and was wondering if we were on the shipping list. I have not seen a charge to my card as of yet. We are anticipating receiving SE for Elk season.
Dear JACK DAUGHERTY,
We are sending this email to express our sincere appreciation for your recent order of the Earthmate GPS PN-40 and Topo USA 7.0. Everyone here at DeLorme is very excited about the pending release of our newest “blazing-fast” device.
Because you were among the first to place your order for the Earthmate GPS PN-40, we wanted to make sure we communicate all of the latest, up-to-date shipping information. As it looks now, we anticipate shipping your PN-40 (or PN-40 SE if that is what you ordered) mid-November. We will be sure to send you a shipping confirmation email when this happens so you can track it to your door or to its final destination.
This message is simply for your information. No response or action on your part is necessary. Because this revised delivery expectation is slightly later than initially shown online, we wanted to provide a status update.
Thank you very much for your order. If you have any questions or concerns, or should you decide to make any changes to your order, please contact Customer Service toll-free at 1-800-561-5105 Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m., and Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.
The PN-40 is an amazing new GPS, a giant leap forward and one we are all very excited about. We are confident you will find it well worth the wait.
Sincerely,
DeLorme PN-40 Team
Caleb et al,
Been tight lately and did not pre-order, but now I can. Question: if I order SE 11/18/08, what might be the ship date? Thanks, Frank
The PN-20 didn’t have enough memory to have one track for a whole day of snowmobiling, did you fix that problem with the PN-40SE? If so can I trade my PN-20 that i purchased in the beginning of the year?
I wanted to describe my experience with Delorme products, not to complain, but maybe to provide the perspective of one of your potential consumers that wanted to buy your product, but based upon your production schedule could not.
This actually goes back to last year when the PN-20 came out. It was alomst exactly a year ago that I heard about the PN-20 and thought it was an exciting product. I had an older model Garmin 60CS and was not so happy about the sensitivity. I hunt every year, the deer season in WI being the last couple weeks in November. I’m sure it is very similar in other states. I was looking at Garmin’s newer “x” models that had better coverage in deeper woods because where I hunt it is very deep coverage and it is easy to get lost.
Last year right before deer season I was scrambling to find a PN-20 somewhere. It had been announced but the ship dates kept getting pushed back. I thought I found one at Cabelas and was even willing to drive 2 hours to get it. Turns out they didn’t have it, it was the wrong one. So since I couldn’t get hold of a PN-20 I settled for a Garmin Vista Hcx. I used it last year and it did ok, but during routing it really jumped around alot and I couldn’t get the electronic compass to calibrate accurately.
So, again hunting season was approaching and I started researching again for a new device. I really like what I saw with the PN-40. It had everything I wanted, better maps, 3 axis compass, etc. I got excited that since I had to forgo the PN-20 last year now I could get the quicker, updated model. In October I was concerned to see ship dates push out into November, then to see a late November date. I pre-ordered from JR.com. I was seeing November 17 on Amazon so I thought I was good to go, JR.com doesn’t give a date, but I thought Amazon would be pretty accurate as to release date. I had ordered 2nd day air. Then I see that the release is actually during the week of the 17th and Amazon has updated to November 21.
Well, since it doesn’t look like my PN-40 is going to be arriving before November 20 when I leave for deer camp I am again faced with probably having to cancel my PN-40 order and either stick with my old 60CS or my Vista HCx, or go with something else. These next two weeks are the two biggest weeks when I need a working GPS most.
I know hunters are not your only demographic; however, if you want to keep your hunters happy my suggestion is to do whatever you can to start your release process early enough to try to accomodate for unsuspected problems, but also do what you can to release 2-3 weeks earlier next time. If there are a number others out there like me you could possibly see a significant increase in sales by hitting the streets with your product right at the time a number of folks are upgrading their equipment in preparation for hunting season. I’m only one guy, but my story alone may have cost you ~$800 alone because I probably would have bought the PN-20 last year, and likely the PN-40 this year.
Thanks for reading,
Erik
Thomas Hampton: yours is shipping today. Congrats.
Jack: you’re up for the next shipment group to leave our building, which I hope will be tomorrow. You have requested two-day air I see.
Frank: I think if you ordered an SE now it would ship to you late next week or the week after once we clear out the existing backorders ahead of you. If you really want an SE model, I’d suggest placing your order with us soon.
Dana: There are many orders ahead of you but we are doing everything within reason to get more units in later this week and early next so my feeling as of today is yours should ship next week.
Erik: I hear you loud and clear. We missed hunting season and know it. We tried not to but these GPS receivers are very complex pieces of equipment requiring very unusual testing needs (e.g., you have to take it outside and get a fix to see if it is working properly) so we lost some time but for a good cause — rock-solid quality. Cabela’s will be carrying the PN-40 in stores starting in the spring, online before then, and will keep the PN-20 in stock at the new lower $249.95 price. REI will have units in their stores by the weekend I would hope. SEs only direct from DeLorme remember. Having that 8-GB internal memory has many of us fired up here FYI.
Rodney: I need to check on your question and will be back shortly.
Hope this all helps!
Any chance our SE might arrive for a day-after-thanksgiving show and tell w/ some local geocachers? Order 5588034, w/ travel bundle.
Rodney: If you update your PN-20 firmware I think you’ll find there is a new feature that automatically saves and creates a new log if you exceed the 10,000 point limit within an individual track. If you find that you are filling 100,000 points in one day then you’ll need to adjust your log interval to use a larger distance between points. You should be using the default logging interval of 10 feet, it allows you to come to a stop without adding the same location to your track log every second you’re there. Try logging every 50 feet; it will give you a lot more mileage from the same track file.
To answer your specific question though, logging in the PN-20 and the PN-40 are the same. We feel our 10,000 point limit and the fact that we don’t thin the data gives you some serious tools for gathering GPS data in the field. I hope this helps…
Chip Noble
DeLorme
Thanks for the reply Chip.
Well it looks like I got lucky. Although JR.com was still showing the PN-40 as unavailable, surprisingly I noticed TigerGPS had them! I cancelled my JR.com preorder and ordered it overnight shipping from TigerGPS.
Looks like I’m getting one by hunting season this year after all!
Erik
Caleb, hunting season starts this weekend here in Mississippi. Where am I on the mail-out list for my PN-40se? Looking forward to showing this cutting edge GPS to other people at the Marina. EASTPORT MARINA & RESORT, LLC on the Tennessee River. See us at http://www.eastportonpickwick.com
Thanks Caleb, not in a big hurry,just wondering! Have a good Thanksgiving.
Dana
Wallace: you might make it out of our building on Friday it looks like, possibly not until early next week. Thanks for sharing the link, which I’ve shown to some others here as well.
Ordered Oct 11. Was conditioning myself not to expect my pn-40 SE until after deer season, starts Dec 1 down here in Pa. But even so monitored the blog daily. I’m impressed with the interaction you have given your customers. Coming from a similar environment in regards to trying to foresee deliveries for newly engineered prototypes while trying to magic eye the balancing act and unforeseen problems between engineers and vendors. Then trying to keep end users informed and happy while stretching the truth to senior management you have it all under control and the world isn’t coming to an end. So two weeks two months been their done that hope you guys can soon sit back and enjoy the challenge you pulled off.
So with all that said when do I see 5584734? When!! When!! When!! Give-Me!! Give-Me!! Give-Me!!
Thanks again for the all the thought and information put into the PN-40 and sales campaign.
-Dave-
5583374 when? (I might as well jump on the old bandwagon…which, incidentally would be easier to find if I had my 40se)
Dave & Jim,
Your orders will be shipping today (Friday) along with hundreds of other SE orders. We just got a good supply of SEs into stock yesterday but the regular model is selling out very quickly at retail so now I’m worried about that one. Thanks for your patience and if you have any questions after you get the device, feel free to ask here or better yet on our customer forums in the tech support section of our Web site.
Hi Caleb,
I received my PN-40 SE on Nov 28th, rather my wife did, for Christmas. I was wondering if there are any negatives with waiting till Christmas to open this baby up. I know some products/manufacturers start the warranty clock ticking from the moment the product ships. Bottom line, will I leave my self open to problems if I don’t open and register this baby until after Christmas? (Just say the word and I will rip open that sucker before my wife even knows what happened! lol).
thanks,
Garry
hi chip
earlier this summer i took my mag-triton back to x-store and traded it in for a more
“user friendly” model. i chose the pn-20 and love it. i have a little trouble, but
considering as computer illeterate as i am i cant complain.i like having the best
and dont mind paying for it. but as my luck goes just as i use my new unit enough
to enjoy it out comes the pn-40! ive seen a few others ask about an exchange
but you havnt answered that question? like i said i like having the best but i cant afford
to own both. what can i do?
thanks
hawk
Hawk: I understand where you’re coming from. We’ve tried to explain why there is no upgrade pricing for the PN-40 in a forum thread… please check the details there.
http://forum.delorme.com/viewtopic.php?t=15660
Thanks for your comment,
Chip Noble
DeLorme
HI,
HAVE A PN20 BUT WILL NOT BUY THE PN40 UNTIL YOU MAKE SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE WITH THE MAC. I DO NOT WANT TO PARTITION MY HARD DRIVE AND LOAD WINDOWS JUST SO I CAN USE MY MAC. NOW USE ONLY DELL PC.
I SEE GARMIN IS COMPATIBLE BUT I LIKE DELORME BEST AND AM TRANSITIONING TO APPLE ONLY.
CHEERS!
D
DUNC: Check out this blog post, it talks about our plans for a geocaching Mac widget and how you can get aerial imagery for your PN-40. We recognize the desire for increased cross-platform support; it is a big topic here at DeLorme.
http://blog.delorme.com/2008/11/11/geocaching-features-for-the-mac-and-pc/
Thank you for your comment.
Chip Noble
DeLorme
I am very interested in this as looking for a first gps unit primarily for hiking/hunting and the odd directions. I am sad to read no topo for Canada, so count my vote fr this feature. BUt was wondering what maps can i expect that would be useful for Canada and my proposed uses.
Thanks in advance