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Comment by larrykubin | Hacker News Reader

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larrykubin

Looks like Garmin stock didn't take the news too well:

http://www.google.com/finance?q=grmn

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Nor Tom Tom:

http://www.google.com/finance?q=TOM2.AS

They just released their quarterly results, which say that average selling price is going way down. So it's not just the Google announcement: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=alkD...

didn't help GOOG either ;)

It also sucks for cell carriers who offer their own navigation services for a monthly fee. (Most of which are re-branded versions of TeleNav.)

I could imagine that if the new Android 2.0 comes are released to the market with these full capabilities that the entire in-car navigation market will be shaken up. Or at the very least, prices will have to come down significantly. Looks like some market consolidation is in the near future for many of these companies.

I dunno... does the Google app cache the whole route and a reasonable surrounding distance and then rely on the GPS for the navigation?

Unless it does, there's still an enormous scope for the in-car navigation market as driving is one of the scenarios in which you are likely to lose your mobile signal or see it weakened enough to hurt a fully online navigation application.

According to CNET they do cache it: "They cache the route selection after you input a destination, so it's stored locally and you won't lose the directions if you lose the connection. If you want to deviate from the route without a connection, you're sort of screwed, but that's not any different from other cell phone navigation apps, as opposed to portable GPS devices with more storage."

From here: http://news.cnet.com/8618-30684_3-10384544.html?communityId=...

"as opposed to portable GPS devices with more storage."

The droid is rumored to come with a 16gb SD card, which can be replaced with a 32GB card. Pretty sure thats as much, if not more than any standalone GPS device.

@jkincaid

That's cool then.

I hope they're caching enough around a route to get you to a petrol station ;) That's generally why I divert and leave the motorways.

I would be very nervous holding GPS company stock. It seems inevitable the the good times are gone. If the stock price doesn't already factor in Google releasing something that improves what people can do with google maps in the car, some thing's funny.

In addition to car nav, the last Garmin thing I bought was a Forerunner, which is obsoleted by "My Tracks" on Android (and undoubtedly other things on other platforms).

Garmin don't make any products I want to buy anymore. I had a GPSMAP276C which though getting old was the best GPS device for me, with way more features than a phone GPS provides.

Then it got stolen, and when I went to see if there was a new/updated model, there wasn't: garmin have spent the last 5+ years making mass-produced cheaper models for in-car nav.

this made me smile. Yeah. Not too well.

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