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Magellan Triton delays

November 20, 2007 By 7 Comments

Magellan_triton_2000CORRECTION:  I just received a correction telling me that Magellan will be rolling out units prior to the holiday season, but that review units probably won’t be available yet.

My bad. Unfortunately this means I have to buy one if I want to be an early tester!

UPDATE: Read my Magellan Triton 1500 review.

ORIGINAL POST: If you’re expecting a Magellan Triton under the Christmas tree this year, you might be in for a disappointment. Magellan’s PR folks are now saying there won’t be any review units until January, though there’s no officially updated timeline from Magellan. Originally targeted for a September release, these handheld units have excited geocachers and backcountry enthusiasts with their ability to display National Geographic TOPO! maps.

But that may be just what’s holding the release up. Rumor has it that there are problems with the software that sends maps to the units. This seems to be borne out by a report that National Geographic has been “scrambling to finish the interface.”

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Filed Under: Magellan, The business of GPS

Anonymous cell phone data for traffic and breaking the NAVTEQ / Tele Atlas duopoly

November 12, 2007 By 1 Comment

Traffic_jam

Anonymous cell phone data is about to change traffic services dramatically, and there are significant implications for the NAVTEQ / Tele Atlas duopoly. More on that in a moment; first, today’s news…

TomTom announced a new "High Definition Traffic" service for the Netherlands, utilizing anonymous cell phone data. In the first half of 2008, the service will be rolled out in the UK too. There is no mention of plans to bring it to the U.S. TomTom says the system will greatly increase the accuracy of traffic reports and arrival time estimates.

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Filed Under: The business of GPS

Perspectives on the Nokia NAVTEQ deal

October 5, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Navteq_logoI wanted to share some of the commentary from around the Web on Nokia’s acquisition of NAVTEQ, but first, I might as well put in my own $.02 worth…

This deal is all about location based services (LBS). Local search on your cell phone or GPS is going to show ads, just like online search does, and mobile ad revenue is going to be huge. Just like online ad revenue has driven Google’s stock to
stratospheric levels, there will be winners in the mobile ad space too. All these companies — data providers, GPS manufacturers, cellular carriers and phone manufacturers — they are all jockeying for position. The LBS marketplace is in its infancy. This is just the beginning.

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Filed Under: The business of GPS

Garmin – Failure to innovate?

August 27, 2007 By 10 Comments

Garmin_logo_pms_rgb

"We continue to focus on what we do best, which is innovating stuff," Garmin spokesman Ted Gartner said.

I have to say, I find that quote particularly interesting, considering how often other companies are beating Garmin to the punch these days. Which begs the question, has Garmin reached a point where they no longer innovate, preferring to play it safe?  Let’s look at recent innovations in consumer GPS products and where they are coming from:

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Filed Under: Garmin, The business of GPS

Live traffic – for free!

February 28, 2007 By 6 Comments

Googlemapslogo
Google announced today that they are adding live traffic to Google Maps. Now you can’t use this on your PND, but it is available on some GPS cell phones via Google Mobile.

This has me wondering about Google’s economic model (give stuff away, make a killing on ads) and the coming cell phone GPS vs. PND wars. Using your cell phone as a GPS is nothing like the experience of a dedicated, decent sized touch-screen device and, while cell phones may take some market share (those folks with only rare or occasional navigation needs), I’ve thought that there is still plenty of room for growth in the PND market.

Santarosatraffic

But Garmin and others better take a close look at this. I wonder how long it will be before a GPS manufacturer comes out with a dual model — pay for traffic services, or get them for free in exchange for seeing location based ads.

Free traffic and satellite photos is a pretty good deal. And while I haven’t found out what traffic service provider Google is using, their coverage appears to be good too. I routinely drive through Santa Rosa, CA, and live traffic reports have yet to show up on my nuvi 660, but here it is on Google Maps.

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Filed Under: Internet applications, The business of GPS

Wal-Mart to drop GPS sales due to high rate of returns?

January 18, 2007 By 9 Comments

DigiTtimes is reporting that Wal-Mart may be considering discontinuing sales of GPS receivers due to the high rate of consumer returns. First a quote, then comments…

GPS sales have an average return rate of about 25% in North America and as high as 40% at Wal-Mart, with the return rate being much higher than other electronics products.

Some major channel distributors including Best Buy and Circuit Buy have started limiting returns to within 14 days of the purchase date, while
requiring customers to pay a 15% restocking fee for returns.

However, Wal-Mart currently accepts product returns for within 30 days of purchase and requests no additional charge, which exposes the retailer
to more risk, the GPS vendors commented.

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Filed Under: The business of GPS

Location, location, location

January 6, 2007 By 1 Comment

Weather3dayforecast
This is beginning to look like the year in which location based services (LBS) will break out big time. In the past week, we’ve heard that the Dash Express will feature Yahoo! Local search, and that the Garmin StreetPilot c580 and Garmin nuvi 680 will both feature MSN Direct, giving access to traffic, weather, gas prices and movie times (see accompanying screen shots).

Other announcements are coming fast and furious. Garmin, which has used XM Radio’s weather service and and now MSN Direct’s, yesterday announced the acquisition of LBS provider Digital Cyclone. This gives them a developed weather product for cell phones and aviation, more options in personal navigation devices, and additional distribution channels in the wireless telecommunications industry.

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Filed Under: Hardware, Location based services, The business of GPS

GPS Wish List

January 3, 2007 By Leave a Comment

The items presented here may not rear their head in 2007, though they aren’t so far fetched as to be out of the question. In addition to features listed in yesterday’s 2007 GPS predictions post, my wish list includes:

Personal locator beacon

A personal locator beacon could become a very popular feature for handheld (or even auto) GPS
receivers, with many a worried spouse ready to shell out big bucks for it.

Voice commands

Voice recognition has made major advances in the past couple of years, but the auto environment is inherently noisy, with extraneous sounds coming from the
exterior and interior (music, audio books and conversation). Pioneer and others are trying this out, but don’t look for mass adoption yet.

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Filed Under: Hardware, The business of GPS

GPS predictions for 2007

January 2, 2007 By Leave a Comment

2007 is here, and since we just reviewed 2006, it seems appropriate to prognosticate a bit on 2007 (and beyond). Though there is not always a strong line of demarcation between the three, I’m going to break this up into three posts over the next few days, covering GPS predictions, my GPS wish list, and GPS fantasies. Today we’ll look at…

GPS predictions

2007 will see major gains in several areas:

Connectivity

Dash Navigation is leading the way here, with their upcoming release of GPS navigators that use (supposedly) anonymous cell phone data to ferret out live traffic conditions. Their challenge will be getting enough users to achieve critical mass.

TomTom already has connectivity via cell phones through their TomTom Plus services. Look for them to expand the capabilities associated with this program and push it more heavily.

Garmin is taking baby steps with their nuvi 670 and 680, but they are bound to be working on something bigger than that. The question is, what will their major connectivity play look like?

With WiMAX a ways away, and users with cell phone data plans being far from ubiquitous, GPS manufacturers are limited in what they can do right now. This is a year for them to get their feet wet and try some things out.

With connectivity comes security risks though. Look for some major holes to appear as navigation software engineers face a steep security learning curve.

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Filed Under: Hardware, The business of GPS Tagged With:

How Garmin came to dominate the GPS marketplace

July 20, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Earlier this week, in an article on Garmin GPS units being offered in Avis and Budget rental cars, the Kansas City Business Journal noted that:


"Garmin is the leading maker of portable navigation units for automobiles in the United States. In June, Garmin sold 58 percent of all portable navigation units domestically, ahead of TomTom NV (24 percent) and Magellan (7 percent), according to researcher NPD."

Just how did Garmin achieve this lofty position in the GPS marketplace? Sure they have wonderfully intuitive interfaces, a reputation for good customer service, a weak competitor in Magellan and a fumbling one in TomTom.

But I see another reason. Garmin has done an excellent job of developing niche markets. Let’s see how many I can list:

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Filed Under: Garmin, The business of GPS
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