Satnav designers are said to be getting hit quite hard by the introduction of
Google Navigation - keeping in mind that the Google Maps based service is free to use, and that smartphones' market share is growing by the day, it may sound like they should have a reason to worry.
But the Google goodies aren't actually
that free, especially when you're cruising through another country. So in their defence, the people over at
Garmin did
a little experiment of their own around France, relying on the fact that
their devices all come with pre-installed maps (which don't need to be always downloaded, as opposed to Google's). Now, I'm a big Android fan, but from my point of view, they shouldn't really have anything to worry about, because:
- People are still genuinely scared of data roaming charges (I know I am). And you're bound to somehow always go over the top because if your smartphone is online, navigation isn't the only thing you will be using (you might as well also check your email, look something up on the web, etc).
- There's only a handful of European countries in which Google Navigation currently works, and besides that, Google Maps aren't always that accurate on the old continent.
- As a point of reference, in Q1 2010 smartphone sales accounted for about 19% of the total worldwide mobile phone sales. So for the remaining 81%, Google Navigation isn't even an option for now.
- Even if satnav devices will eventually fade out, it's still good business to sell platform-specific smartphone apps (which do work offline), as most manufacturers are already doing anyway.
