GPS Phones
Today’s survey from Canalys highlights the fact that consumers are excited by the prospect of having GPS on their phone…
"62% agreed or agreed strongly with the statement that it would be useful to have satellite navigation built into their phone, with even higher levels among existing navigation system owners and regular business drivers."
In my opinion, current phone GPS technology isn’t currently up to the task. It generally takes too long to get a first fix, it’s difficult to get a fix in built up areas and leaving the GPS on results in much reduced battery life. Many of these problems have been solved with stand-alone GPS units. So, I do wonder if smartphones will go though a period where sales are boosted significantly due to the inclusion of GPS. This previously happened with Windows Mobile Pocket PCs to the extent that shipments increased several fold.
Another observation is that GPS phones have come about through the sluggishness of most network operators in implementing (phone) network based location based systems that are more appropriate (efficient) for use on the phone. I think that network operators have been shortsighted when they have concluded that the required investment wouldn’t bring in any extra direct revenue (from voice and text nor can they really charge for GPS). Instead, they should have thought about all the (3G) services that could have been provided on the back of location - and sell innovative services, not the GPS or resultant data usage.
Hence, GPS is just one example where network operators have failed to grasp the opportunity and the market has devised a work-around.
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