It is amazing to think that technology that was unfathomable a generation ago is now available to us in so different ways. Take GPS for example. A simple handheld unit can locate a user inside give or take three feet of their exact location. Pretty amazing, huh? Even more amazing is that this state of the art, space age technology is available on a Sim free mobile phone and even on those cute pink mobile phones you saw at the mall yesterday.
GPS is offered on most of the newest Sim free mobile phones as long as you have access to a 3G network, but is it as good as a stand alone GPS unit like the handheld Garmin units or the ones built into cars? The simple answer is not yet. Cell phones try to be a lot of things completely at once: camera, keyboard, MP3 player, video game console, GPS unit, oh yeah - and a telephone. The result is they are not the best at any of these things compared to a stand alone unit.
One huge advantage that a stand alone GPS unit has over a Sim free mobile phone is the size of its screen. If you are driving by yourself, it is difficult (and dangerous) to be peering at a little cell phone screen in your hand as compared to glancing at a large built in or dash mounted unit. If you have passenger, they can use the phone just fine, or on a little of phones you can use turn by turn voice directions.
So the stand alone unit is better for the car. But then again, when you park the car, you take the pink mobile phones with you while you are not probably to lug both the phone and the GPS, unless you have a lot of pockets. And cargo pants are just not in this year.
Right now, both the cell phone and the GPS markets are growing. The problem for the GPS manufacturers is that if customers had to select only one, they would certainly choose the cell phone and more and more phones are being offered with GPS capabilities for no charge. That means that consumers will only purchase a GPS unit if the one on their Sim free mobile phone is not good enough. And for numerous people it will be just fine.
Market analysts say that the stand alone GPS market will continue to grow for a few more years as the prices are lowered, but that it will drop off drastically as people upgrade to the update generations of smart phones and the 3G network coverage is completed. At that point the cell phone GPS systems will be improved enough to compete with the stand alones in all but screen size. And the negative for the phone there is countered by its portability and multi functionality.
The handheld GPS will inevitably go the way of the PDA, which was replaced by the cell phone as soon as smart phones, like the Blackberry, started coming equipped with decent keyboards and useful software.
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