Convergence vs Divergence: Sat Nav
By Ben Robinson on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 12:18 PM PST In The Digital Life
In this great world of Mobile Devices that are more than just phones, just about everyone is hell-bent on Convergence – slam as many features as you can in to a device, and that will make it great. We’ve only got to consider devices carring so-say High Megapixel cameras, Sat Nav, WiFi, and other “smart”phone functions, and suddenly the phone is some kind of mobile feature-hub!
Well I say what about the case for Divergence – where you separate out the features you want in to best-in-class devices…..case in point #1: the Sat Nav unit.
I’ve checked out the Sat Nav in various Mobile devices, and came away not-so-impressed. Yet my TomTom One works great as a Sat Nav – because that’s all it does. And the prices of these are tumbling. Expansys now have the TT One for £99.99 including a case.
Just an FYI at this point – if you are going to get a Sat Nav unit like this, there are 4 things you need:
(1) the Sat Nav unit
(2) the carry case
(3) the windscreen mount (mostly included, but not always)
(4) a professional installation to give you power from the car’s wiring – running Sat Nav on batteries is wearisome due to the power consumption
So, maybe there is a case for buying a separate specialist unit for the task you have in-hand, rather than buying a “smart”phone with everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink, stuffed in it. What say you?
True, there are certain standalone units, such as portable GPS systems that do their job and do it well and as the price drops on them, they are getting more and more ubiquitous.
Still, as an occasional weekend driver (I live and work in downtown Chicago) I found that the purchase of the HTC Touch Cruise, a Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 phone with built-in GPS and TomTom Navigator software very useful “convergent” device.
It is basically my phone, primary media player, mobile messaging device (via SMS/MMS and push imap Gmail), mobile internet (via AT&T 3G and WiFi), impromptu 3.2 megapixel camera, day planner and portable GPS navigator all rolled into one.
It’s probably more for tech enthusiasts (aka geeks) like me, but I see see devices such as the 3G iPhone bringing it all out into the mainstream. Once Apple and companies like TomTom get turn-by-turn navigation software working with the iPhone 3G’s GPS, it will most be a choice between buying software through the iPhone appstore or buying a separate standalone GPS unit.
To this day, a device such as the N95 is invaluable to me in terms of convenience and convergence. Since I purchased the original for an amount I hesitate to disclose, it has still proven to be worth every penny for all of the devices it replaces. Of course it doesn’t have an MP3 player like an iPod, of course it doesn’t have a 5mp camera like a Canon, of course it doesn’t have GPS like a Garmin, and of course it doesn’t completely replace a laptop. Sacrificing a portion of the quality from those standalone devices in exchange for them all to fit into one device is what makes all the difference. I don’t have to worry about which devices I brought with me to what event because as long as I have my phone, I can probably accomplish all that I need to anyway.
In todays tech world, devices are judged by the features that werent included. So every new device maker tried to cram features for the sake of having features. if these all in one devices push prices of standalone units to the point of affordable, then im all for it.
i had a garmin gps unit which was $750 and it was worth every penny. I use a nokia n95 and maps service and while it gets me there, i would MUCH rather have the standalone device and leave it in my car.
I preffer all-in-one systems. why?
1) I am lazy
is cool not to bring video camera, photo camera, cell phone AND sat nav system.
if you can avoid one is just very cool. most of my trips mis planes and rental cars, so I like to avoit extra weight.
2) it works great
tomtom runs just perfect on most nokia cell phones, and it is just a tiny system that you bring in your main bag.
I had travel with friends using pro navsystems and performance is about the same, sometimes even better on mine.
sat nav in my N95 8Gb has no pair, it is just a perfect solution.