Dear Garmin: I love your GPSs, but you really need to sell fewer of them.

When I arrive at your website, I am asked to choose between six choices:

On the Road
On the Go
On the Trail
Onto Fitness
On the Water
In the Air

These make sense to you, don’t they. Let me give you some free advice: they don’t make sense to those of us outside of your corporate structure.

Let me ask you some questions which make perfect sense to a first-time visitor looking at this list: “When I am on the road, aren’t I also on the go? Does `on the go’ refer to exercise? No, wait, there’s fitness down there. What does `on the trail’ mean? I ride my bike on a trail (a bike trail, actually) on my way to work (on the go?) which also takes me on the road.”

Water and Air, I guess I don’t need either of those because I don’t have a plane or a boat, but rest of that list is unclear. You ought to re-work it entirely.

Think I’m wrong? Ask 100 people where they would expect to find “Mobile Phones” and see if they score higher than they would have if they just randomly guessed.

Mobile Phones, by the way, are useful on the road, and trail, and on the water too. See how your categories don’t really make sense?

Sure, if I hover each of them, I’ll find the right one, but I shouldn’t have to.

Your Garmin On-The-Road leads me to the automotive listing… and if I click through there I can find a full listing of all your automotive GPS units.

This list is a mess.

6 columns and 7 rows, well, almost… the last row has only 5 items and they seem different than the other 6 rows.

There are 5 rows plus one which are called “Nüvi” and then the rest of the row called “Streetpilot”

What is the difference between Nüvi and Streetpilot? I have no idea. They look a little different.

Nüvi Riche?

Several, but not all of the Nüvis have the same model numbers, except some have a W attached:

nüvi® 200
nüvi® 200W
nüvi® 205
nüvi® 205W
nüvi® 250
nüvi® 250W
nüvi® 255
nüvi® 255W
nüvi® 260
nüvi® 260W
nüvi® 270
nüvi® 300
nüvi® 310
nüvi® 350
nüvi® 360
nüvi® 370
nüvi® 600
nüvi® 610
nüvi® 650
nüvi® 660
nüvi® 670
nüvi® 680
nüvi® 710
nüvi® 750
nüvi® 760
nüvi® 770
nüvi® 780
nüvi® 850
nüvi® 860
nüvi® 880
nüvi® 900T
nüvi® 5000

1) Is it really necessary to put the ® after each one? We get it, it’s your registered name. Does it help the readability of that list? No. It is really necessary? No.

2) What’s the difference between a 200-series, a 300-series, a 600-series, a 700-series, and an 800-series? Why does the 900 series only have one, and what’s with the “T”? And then you jump all the way to 5000?

3) What’s with the “W” on some of the 200-series models numbers?

4) There are 32 different model numbers listed there. Could you, without looking, explain the differences in those 32 models in a way that would make sense to someone who didn’t work for Garmin in less time than it would take for their eyes to gloss over?

5) Do you really need 32 different models in 7 different series just within the nüvi series alone? Can you explain the difference between those 7 series? (What happened to the 400 and 500 level?)

6) Are you familiar with the studies that show that more choices don’t increase customer satisfaction? I can already tell you that it has made this process harder for me. I feel like I need to study the whole series to figure out what features I am giving up if I go for the different series, and then look closely at each one in that series.

7) Have you seen Apple’s product line up? They have 3 desktop machines: Mini, iMac, and Mac Pro. They have 3 notebooks: MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air. As John Gruber has noted, it is fairly simple to figure out what you want just by the name (or, failing that, a picture).

Lessons from Apple

Here is a complete rundown of the major points of all of the computers made by Apple:

The Mini is the little one with no keyboard, mouse, or monitor.
The iMac is the all-in-one.
The Mac Pro is the super-powerful tower.
MacBook is the basic model.
The MacBook Pro has advanced features including separate graphics and an ExpressCard slot, not to mention a larger screen (2 sizes) and the option for matte or glossy screens.
The MacBook Air is the super thin and light one without a DVD drive.

Sure you’ve got some variations in each one (how much RAM and hard drive space, etc) but the differences are clear. You want a monitor? iMac. You want internal expandability? Mac Pro. You want a 15″ laptop? MacBook Pro. Looking for “Light above all else”? There’s no “MacBook-P” or “MacBook-A” or “MacBook-N” or some other obscurity.

What about iPods?

They have a tiny iPod shuffle, a bigger Nano with more space but still light, a “classic” which holds a lot of music, and an iPod Touch which has a full-screen like the iPhone. Simple

Help Me Buy A GPS

Here’s what I know I want in a GPS:

1) WAAS

2) “Where Am I?” feature

3) Text To Speech (ability to tell me the name of the street that I am looking for)

4) “Here are the X number of places I need to go, plot the fastest route.”

5) Plot specific point to specific point

6) Find Nearby Stuff (restaurants, gas stations, etc)

I think #1 is in many if not all, #2 and #3 and #4 are not.

#5 is such a basic feature I suspect all have it now, but there was a time when some basic ones only offered “Directions to City” rather than specific addresses.

#6 exists but don’t require me to deviate far from my set course (i.e. if I am heading north on a 3-4 lane highway at 70 m.p.h, I really don’t want to turn around to go back to find a restaurant, nor go 5 miles off an exit. Show me what’s close, unless, of course, I am looking for a specific restaurant).

So, tell me, Garmin, which model do I want?