GPS navigates onto holiday wish lists

< Prev | 1 | 2

Most popular

All aboard the bandwagon
That price drop is also the result of increased competition and a drive to grow the market. Veerender Kaul, an analyst with Palo Alto (Calif.)-based Frost & Sullivan, says, "The manufacturers like Garmin and TomTom brought prices down because they wanted to expand volumes, but there's still a huge market potential given new competition and new value propositions."

Indeed, this year a raft of reputed brands jumped on the GPS bandwagon. Companies like Alpine, Audiovox, Clarion, JVC, Panasonic, and Sony announced they would produce navigation-enabled products. Market leaders, meanwhile, are branching into new services like real-time traffic, music, and other multimedia features.

BusinessWeek Online
Best in big TVs
Priciest tech products
Breakthrough tech 2006
Gear for — and against — the snoops
Today's hottest high-tech cars
Now, with prices at both the component and retail levels hitting new lows and consumer interest in GPS technology rising, some companies are offering new gadgets enhanced by the capability to provide directions and location-based services. Hewlett-Packard recently began selling its first palmtop with an integrated GPS receiver, maps, and navigation software.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

The iPAQ rx5900 is billed as a "travel companion" and merges traditional calendar, e-mail, and Internet functions with car and handheld navigation. The $600 device runs both the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC operating system and navigation software from TomTom.

Some new devices add a twist on the traditional navigation scheme. Wrapped in a white and silver design much like an iPod, the Mio DigiWalker H610 offers GPS navigation primarily geared for walkers, though it also works in the car. At about 2 in. by 3 in. and less than 1 in. deep, it's one of the smallest GPS units on the market. The $449 unit also features games and multimedia capabilities.

Stalwarts in the personal-navigation market are busily trying to prepare products and services to combat new competition like GPS-enabled palmtops, multimedia players, and even cell phones. TomTom's new top-of-the-line GO 910 navigation unit, for instance, packs in a hard drive &aacute; la iPod to serve up photos and music alongside driving directions. But its awkward, bulky egg shape — a design concession to accommodate a large screen, hard drive, and built-in speaker — perfectly underscores the difficulty manufacturers face in turning navigation tools into feature-rich, portable, multimedia devices. Mashing together capabilities can result in higher cost and reduced usability rather than must-have, all-in-one gadgets.

With each new take, the array of gadgets receiving signals sent by satellites in orbit is growing. The only question now: Will consumers tune into the new devices too?

< Prev | 1 | 2