May 29 2008
Garmin in Trouble with GPS Enabled iPhone? No Way
Gizmodo has a blog post about an unnamed GPS maker being “Scared Shitless” by the prospect of the iPhone having a GPS unit. I call BS. If anything, I think the GPS-enabled iPhone is going to make people more aware of GPS and possibly boost sales in the long term.
I’m salivating at the thought of a GPS-enabled iPhone device. Services like Brightkite, and my own personal projects rely heavily on location. Having that in my phone is going to be awesome. But the market for GPSes is far and wide. Is the iPhone going to replace automotive GPS devices? That have the maps preinstalled and work locally? No way. Hiking devices? Not a chance. Having the topo data in the middle of nowhere is key.
My hope is that the iPhone will actually get more people thinking about how GPS can be used in all aspects of their lives. The one area where the iPhone might affect sales is maps. I hate having to pay for updated maps. I sort of get it, but I think it’s annoying. If the iPhone can change how the GPS companies sell maps, that will be a good thing for consumers. I’m willing to pay for updated maps like I do with a data plan, but right now they seem way too expensive for me.
one thing that people don’t realize about the appstore/iphone SDK terms is regarding GPS they will not allow turn-by-turn guidance applications. it’s the telecomm dirty secret — the deals with TeleNav exclusivity to provide that. That’s why on most phones with GPS it comes locked (easy ways around it of course). With Apple controlling the AppStore I’m not sure we’ll see any guidance apps like that, but the integration of Goog maps already pretty much gives us that i guess.
I don’t think that it will replace my dedicated and rugged gps in the backcountry, but it might be a good complement. When I am trying to travel very light and not likely to get very lost, it may be worth while as a substitute.
I’d sure love to have a topo program that would pre-load the maps onto the device and allow me to access them. Perhaps NatGeo could even do something like they did for the triton GPS and allow the export of their detailed maps to a specialized program.