May 28, 2006

Basics on the GPS Market

There's a pretty good article in today's Boston Globe that talks about the basics of GPS. Not a bad read if you are just getting into the GPS world, as it briefly covers the major points like what to shop for in a mobile GPS for the car, a handheld, and what's going on in the marketplace for the US. If you've been hanging out at the GPS Lodge for a while you probably already know a lot of this, but you may find it interesting to hear from another source.

I was pretty impressed to read, "Consumers in North America are expected to spend approximately $300 million on portable GPS devices this year, a 50 percent increase over the roughly $200 million spent in 2005, according to ABI, a New York research firm.

``GPS technology is pretty much everywhere these days," said Frank Viquez , ABI's director of transportation research. ``Now that the market has become so competitive, the costs are coming down. The real winner is the consumer."

We've been reporting on GPS company earnings here at the GPS Lodge, and if you have been reading them you know that the earnings are rocking at the major GPS companies, and the solid companies that support them, like SiRF.

Another thing that the Globe article does is run down a few of the features that are popular in today's GPS units.

"Viquez's list of must-have features for automotive use include a color, touch-pad screen that's 4.5 inches in diameter or larger, voice guidance, a rechargeable battery, an internal hard drive that can store maps and other media, as well as a USB port so that it can download information from a personal computer. Garmin's StreetPilot Series, Magellan's RoadMate series, and TomTom's Go 510, 700, and 910 models, most of which are priced between $500 and $1,000, are good options, according to Viquez.

Hikers and boaters who want a smaller GPS receiver for outdoor use and don't need all of the bells and whistles that come with automotive units can find excellent devices for between $150 and $300, Viquez said ."

I tend to agree on the mobile unit front. For instance, I think it's worth shelling out the extra money to move from the Garmin C320 up to the Garmin C330, because the main difference is that the Garmin C330 has a built in map database on an internal hard drive. The Garmin C320 has removable media that you download a small set of maps onto from your PC. To me it's horrible to have to go back to the PC to download new maps if you are going on a trip to another part of the country. I once forgot to do this and took a GPS without anything but basic highway data on it to North Carolina for a week. My wife hassled me the whole trip over this, and I had to admit that I felt pretty stupid too.

ReadMore at the Boston Globe