By now, most people are familiar with the abbreviation GPS - Global Positioning System - and most people seem to associate it with at device with a small display screen that tells you where to drive your car to. Most people I know thinks that this is new and growing and must be a great business to get into.
Those people would be surprised to learn that the business of selling Personal Navigation Devices is already in decline: European sales declined by 18.6% in the 4th quarter of 2010 (presumably compared to the year before).
http://news.thewherebusiness.com/report/6364
The thing is that enough people can use Google Maps on their internet enabled cellphones so they don't need to buy a special navigation device.
I have an old GPS receiver without a map display, that I bought before internet cellphones were available; I have used it for a bit of geocaching, and hooked it up to a laptop with a map application loaded from a CD-ROM. But these days, I just use the Maps on my iPhone. I still think the navigation system in my daughter's car is cool, and I will almost certainly get one when I need a new car. The car devices speak, while my iPhone Maps require reading, thus distracting me when I am driving.
Meanwhile, the positioning provided by these device is getting remarkably accurate. That will be the subject of another post in the near future.
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