Time to prognosticate! My annual GPS predictions…
Auto GPS predictions
- At least one major manufacturer will introduce monthly map updates
- And one will introduce an Android-based navigator
- TomTom will announce their new GO series for the US at CES, many months after introducing them in Europe
- Garmin will officially announce the 2xx8LMTHD series at CES
- File under hopeful: Garmin will introduce a full-featured nuvi, along the lines of their old StreetPilot 7xxx line
Sport and handheld GPS predictions
- Garmin will introduce more sportwatches with color screens
- Magellan will offer a tool to create your own maps
- Magellan will introduce at least one Android-based handheld
- The next Garmin Oregon camera model will be able to record videos
- Garmin will update the GPSMAP 62 series with the 64 series, which will include GLONASS support
- Garmin will introduce a hiking model that will offer round-trip routing and OSM trail maps, a la the Garmin Edge Touring
- Galileo support won’t come till 2015
- New Garmin models will include a gobi, a venu, and a vivo series
- Going out on a limb, I’ll say that Garmin will introduce a mainstream smartwatch
Your turn!
What did I miss? What are your GPS predictions or wishes?
Image credit: Colourful 2014 in fiery sparklers (christmasstockimages.com) / CC BY 3.0
About Rich Owings
“Garmin will introduce a full-featured nuvi, along the lines of their old StreetPilot 7xxx line”
What did you have in mind here Rich? The StreetPilot 7xxx would mean the 7″ StreetPilot 7200 and 7500. IMO, those were already dumbed down to pretty closely resemble the Nuvi. It was the earlier small screen generation, the StreetPilot 26xx series, that had all the advanced features. The 2620 was the first device to contain pre-loaded maps for the whole US. I had one of these and loved it – maps were stored on a compact flash card that contained a 2gb IBM microdrive. On cold mornings you had to wait until the internal heater warmed it to operating spec. The drive would also crash sometimes if you hit a big bump in the road. I don’t miss that! 🙂
But since the StreetPilot 26xx was an early automotive device, it had a feature set that was quite close to Garmin’s handheld devices with lots of menu control over everything. When the 27xx series came along, they kept the same “brick” form factor but included a high sensitivity chip, NT map compatibility and an interface that became more similar to the Nuvi with fewer advanced menus. I think the StreetPilot 7xxx series was really just a 27xx with a big screen.
Best holiday wishes to you and everyone in the GPSTracklog community!
Thanks Boyd. You’re right — I should have said the StreetPilot 26xx series.
For GPS watches, I’m hoping for something that can measure heart rate on the wrist. So without using a separate chest strap. Like the Mio Alpha, but with GPS built in.
And I would like to see more Android outdoor handhelds. Something smaller and cheaper than the Monterra, about Etrex size would be good.
Hopefully OpenStreetMap will be become more common. I think more handheld devices will have OSM maps loaded as standard, plus an easy way to keep the maps up to date.
Garmin will recall the Monterra and abandon the Android OS.
Ouch!
Merry Christmas Rich to you and yours!
Growing concern about GPS interference and jammers will prompt announcement of GPS interference detector for consumers (possibly a Kickstarter project). Device in production in 2015.
“Time to prognosticate! My annual GPS predictions…
Auto GPS predictions
At least one major manufacturer will introduce monthly map updates
And one will introduce an Android-based navigator…..”
I could see Garmin bringing the Nuvi 3592LM to the United States! http://www.garmin.com.sg/m/buzz/sg/minisite/nuvi3592lm/