An excerpt from my Vegas Seven column. This week, why prices for dashboard-mounted GPS units are crashing.
A quick search of Amazon.com returns several fine models, most below $150 and many priced below $100. Two major players, Garmin and TomTom, dominate these price points, offering models at a steep discount compared with this time last year, when a good dashboard-mounted GPS cost north of $200.
Part of the reason for the steep and stunning pricing decline is that mobile phones are getting much better at duplicating the functions of dashboard-mounted GPS devices.
Google introduced Google Maps Navigation for Android—a fantastic application that offers accurate, turn-by-turn driving instructions—in November. The app is free and it comes included on several Android-based phones (including the Motorola Droid and Google’s new phone, the Nexus One) and as an upgrade for others (including the first Android phone, the G1 from T-Mobile). The application includes traffic alerts, recommendations for restaurants and other handy road-trip functions. (It even links to Google Map’s Street View function to show you a picture of your destination’s front door before you get there.)
Here is the entire column, which discusses GM’s OnStar, Ford’s Sync and a bevy of mobile-phone based GPS options.
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Dashboard GPS units may soon be cheaper than paper maps from the gas station. My new @7Vegas column: http://bit.ly/c8RSdb
My week in review. Why we have H. Montana: http://bit.ly/crhwID A Dad blogger http://bit.ly/d38tEG Traffic snarls GPS http://bit.ly/c8RSdb
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