iPhone and the GPS Revolution
TWICE has a good little article today looking at the explosion of iPhone applications that are hitting the iPhone to help you get through your navigationally challenged day. If you are a GPSLodge regular, you've seen articles on almost all of these, but when put together, the overview really starts to document the trend. I was remarking the other day that this summer is the summer that the road veered strongly away from the standalone GPS to a split pathway forward (for now maybe) of the smartphone and standalone GPS as the choices for navigation information in the future.
We've seen applications from TomTom, TeleNav, Navigon, iGo, and waze for getting you from here to there, while others have offered interesting approaches to the single problem of traffic, like Aha and Inrix. While Aha, is a crowdsourced model, the inrix application relies on its vast database of GPS probes, road sensors and the like to offer up a highly accurate picture of the traffic situation now and forecasted into the near future. According to TWICE, the Inrix model is 85 to 95 percent accurate, while others are 50 to 85 percent accurate. Users of the inrix Traffic! application will benefit from the accuracy while also becoming part of the anonymous data GPS probe data collection team.
Turn by turn directions on the iPhone is certainly left to be proven that it will take hold and deliver, but with the weight of the players behind it, one has to think that they can figure it out. there certainly are some shortcomings, including a drain on the battery, hard to hear turn directions and the smallish screen that the stand alone GPS market is countering by offering large and larger screens in most product lines. TomTom is solving for the battery issue and the turn volume issue with a hardware mount that includes charging and a speaker to offer a near-stand alone performance in the add-on package.
More at Twice
Read More in: Mobile Phone GPS
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Posted by Scott Martin at August 26, 2009 10:57 AM
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