[654321ROD]

Is the Garmin organisation really serious about the mobile market? When do you think a working solution for the Storm 9500 in Africa will be a reality. Other phones have this useful piece of software freely available with contract phones! Blackberry could also make an effort in so much as making the maps on a SD card readable. Where is the rocket science in this ability?

[hubermania]

Garmin is somewhat slow to adopt map updates, and South Africa is one of the newer countries to be mapped. You might try Amaze GPS, they seem to be faster at adopting map updates from NAVTEQ and they have coverage for South Africa.

http://www.amazegps.com

There are pluses and minuses to having the map data on the device. By having the maps on an SD card, you aren't dependent on wireless data to deliver map data. The downside is that you're stuck with that map for eternity until you pay for a map update. Garmin, Amaze, BB Maps, Amaze, Nav4All, etc pull their map data from a central server that is updated at least every 3-6 months.