It’s easy to get lost following all the turns in direction and developments in the satellite navigation field this year.
The sector has been rapidly commoditised by the inclusion of satnav in automotive dashboards and GPS-enabled mobile phones.
Google’s introduction of its free Navigation application for Android phones in October has also disrupted the sector – it makes TomTom’s $100 turn-by-turn app for the iPhone look decidedly expensive.
The price of TomTom’s hardware and shares, as well as those of other PND (personal navigation device) makers, have been forced down by the competition. Text-to-speech units with spoken directions, such as the Magellan Roadmate 1220, have been available for less than $100 in the holiday sales.
The most innovative service – Silicon Valley’s Dash Navigation – got out of hardware last year and was acquired in June by Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry. This could be the pattern for other players – switching to a software and services model or becoming part of consolidation in the sector.
Shipments of dedicated PNDs are expected to fall 0.7 per cent this year after double and even triple-percentage increases in recent years, according to the iSuppli research firm. It expects sales to remain flat over the next four years at around 40m units.
I was impressed with Google’s navigation service on the Droid phone – it merged traffic data with its satellite images and switched to ground-level street-view photos as I neared my destination. However, it is dependent on a reliable internet connection and I found myself switching back to the car’s DVD-based satellite navigation on a number of occasions when the data feed failed.
GPS devices can be useful beyond the car. Here’s our personal tech guru Paul Taylor’s views on what’s available.
“Global positioning chips have found their way into smartphones, dog collars – such as the Zoombak GPS dog tracker ($$$, ♥♥♥) – and personal emergency beacons, as well the ubiquitous vehicle satnav unit.
If you own a smartphone, and have not already got a TomTom or Garmin Nüvi unit, take a look at some of the specialist navigation applications that are now available for the iPhone and other smartphone devices, which turn a smartphone into a full-function, voice-enabled navigation device. I particularly like Navigon’s Mobile Navigator ($$$, ♥♥) iPhone app.
For cyclists, consider one of Garmin’s Edge ($$, ♥♥♥) handlebar GPS units or a GPS-enabled Suunto X10 wrist computer for the outdoor enthusiast.”
