Drop, charge, and lose the cordsPoll: Are you for GPS convergence?
Nokia N95
(Credit: Nokia)I've had this question on my mind for quite some time now. Covering both GPS and smartphones for CNET, it's been interesting to watch these two areas of technology converge. More and more smartphones (such as RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130, Nokia N95, and Samsung BlackJack II) offer integrated GPS, and it seems people want this functionality in their phone...or so I thought.
You see, back in early April, I attended CTIA 2008, and I participated in a panel discussion where we discussed the "next big thing" in the wireless industry. One of the topics we covered was convergence, specifically cell phone/GPS convergence, and we had several industry experts from Nokia, TeleAtlas, and Garmin on stage to share their thoughts. Now, with all three companies having invested quite some time and money into the melding of the two technologies, it wasn't surprising that they were all for it. However, we also conducted an audience poll where we asked the question: What will consumers most want converged into their cell phones? They were given multiple-choice answers--TV, GPS navigation, media player, or full Web browser--and could text in their vote. When we got the results, I was simultaneously surprised and not surprised.
Only 4 percent of the audience thought GPS was the next big thing for cell phones, while a full Web browser won overwhelmingly with 80 percent of the vote. I was a little shocked at the low number, but I've said it before; I don't think a majority of consumers are ready for the GPS-cell phone convergence yet--not when they're still trying to wrap their heads around standalone portable navigation devices. This isn't to say it won't change in the future, and I certainly see the benefits of having GPS on your cell phone. Just the other day I used my RIM BlackBerry Curve 8310 to find the location a restaurant to meet a friend, but will it take over the GPS industry? I say no way. I'm not just picking on GPS and cellular technology. I'm also weary, though a little less so, of integrating navigation into portable video players and conversely, I think adding multimedia capabilities to PNDs is a complete waste of time. (You can hear my rant about this topic on last week's MP3 Insider podcast.)
So all that said, back to the original question I had in mind. Are you for GPS convergence? Or maybe the better question is what will make the marriage of all these technologies a success and make you want to buy a converged device? I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on this and want it to be an open discussion, so please share your comments below.
Bonnie Cha is a senior editor for CNET, covering smartphones and GPS. When she's not testing the latest gadgets, you can find her chasing after her crazy lab or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California. E-mail Bonnie.
NOKIA has done a pathetic job advertising the N95 (or any of their super high end phones). These phones are absolutely amazing and imagine a commercial showing the things you can do with their GPS Beta Software (supplied for free by their website). It would blow peoples minds.
Still lets all remember that the American public is blown away by touch screens (which have been around for years) on a less then SMART Edge speed smartphone.
There are also excellent free programs that use Voice Nav for the N95 such as AMAZE GPS and NAV4ALL.
Anyways GPS is amazing yet something most of the public has no clue about. Its for more then just navigating. And considering most of the public's techy side focus's on editing their myspace page we may need to wait a while for GPS in phones to become super popular.
Anyways cool article thanks!
Is it the next big thing? The *next* yes. But it has to be faster and more accurate for the GPs to make it. I can't say much bad about Apple's approach as I can quickly find theaters/pizza joints/ restaurants in a strange city and get there quickly but when I try to travel using it local navigation can be off.
Free Ones with pretty quick lock:
AMAZE GPS
NAV4ALL
Pay One With Fast Lock:
Garmin XT
Also, if you by chance have a TV screen in your car you can hook the N95 up to it via Composite cables giving yourself a nice big screen.
Garmin XT is very accurate IMO and worth the 99 bucks and it has European and American maps available.
I completely agree with the article: I don't think the mass consumer market (or even a great majority (not an overwhelming majority)) is ready for a convergance between too many technologies, simply because of several features being destined to being crippled. And it's evident in majority of the products that have come out in a multitude of catagories: mp3 players; cell phones; some cameras--they've all incorperated some sort of unique feature to its family in recent years (since it was thought to be a huge seller, but in my opinion, merely increases the chances of a consumer purchase by a smaller, but not that much smaller of a percentage). *Quick note* I think Casio's first slim camera (the 2MP one that came out like 7-8 years ago) actually integrated the mp3 player in quite well--with the exception of it's limited release, advertisement, and ****** cable remote (well all cables are fragile). The mp3 player was my best friend (and since it was first generation, I just was hoping to take pictures and play music simultaneously one day, minus the digital-only zoom (given since it was the first slim camera of its kind, and way before they started putting optical zoom in smaller cameras), and the pictures (and size of the camera) were fantastic at that time. */endnote*
But recently, after reaching several months of employment at Best Buy, I've seen a lot of my money go to several gadgets thanks to their awsome discount (pay's below expectation, but I have to do what I can). Within the next month, I plan to be going on a trip for a month and a half to the west coast for family and just some off time from college and such. One of my intended purchases was a GPS unit, and with the discount, I was giddy to use it. But after calculating and purchasing some of my wishlist, a good lower-high end GPS unit just isn't possible with the amount of financing I've forced myself to follow.
Then it hit me: why not rely on my Blackberry 8800 or my Nokia N810? They've both got the technology integrated, and I've seen some of it in action, and think it would work. After some thinking, I decided to buy the GPS service for the N810 (tonight) for my trip, since the only drawback I saw in using it was the long lock-on time (4 minutes best)--but to counter this, I heard the lock-on can be done anywhere (meaning not limited to the car), so my best way to work with this is to have it lock on when I'm getting ready to leave on the road.
Why would I converge now despite my earlier opinions? The internet tablet actually did a good job with the GPS from what I've seen and heard (and soon to be tried with the trial)--why not save myself the money ($400 d/c+$15 shipping+$130 for the 3yr license < (having) N810 for $415 + $500 for a higher end GPS unit), where my opportunity cost lies in the faster start for an extra $370 coming out of my budget.
Though I may use the excuse of saving money for this instance, I doubt I'll always follow this route, and will probably switch back to my earlier opinion for this reason: I believe in having discrete devices for discrete functions. I (along with everyone else on the planet) hope to get that dream device that can do it all (or what I want anyways), but I feel it won't happen since that would temporarily cripple the economy (but a product or two that was underestimated in preliminary review ending up released on the mass market to enjoy would be great). I guess it'll be like this until the convergance of technologies into single devices can heal its crippling features, and rise to meet (individual or mass) consumers' expectations.
One of the reasons I bought the Pearl was to have a strong calendar function and a way for me to get my e-mail. I occasionally use a little internet, but do feel limited in terms of what I can access or how it's viewed on my little screen.
My point is that given that I bought my device with it's compact form in mind, how could I possibly benefit from an expensive feature that I could barely see that raises the cost of my phone significantly?
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by acheron5
April 26, 2008 8:02 AM PDT
- I'm not against GPS convergence in cellphones. But depending on the device, I'm not completely for it either unless it doesn't add to the price, size, or power consumption of the device.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (29 Comments)Also, I would like the discussion of GPS enabled cellphones to distinguish between true GPS and A-GPS only (which can be confusing with phones like the N-95 which uses A-GPS to improve its true GPS).