Recalculating ... The 3G iPhone is coming. GPS manufacturers should be very, very scared.
By Chadwick Matlin Slate Magazine Posted Monday, June 9, 2008, at 7:00 PM ET
When Apple unveiled iTunes, it changed the recording industry by legitimizing and monetizing the process of downloading music. By coupling iTunes with the iPod, the company figured out a way to dictate the direction of the market for portable MP3 players. When it showcased the iPhone, it forced non-AT&T cellular carriers to scramble for touch-screen cell phone knockoffs. Now, Apple is bringing a faster, sleeker 3G iPhone to market-and it's the end of the portable GPS market as we know it.
For Apple, the move to GPS was a no-brainer. The original iPhone shipped with Google Maps as one of its built-in applications, and its EDGE network could already approximate your position by triangulating your signal against cell-phone towers. The denser the cell towers, the more easily the iPhone could spot you on a map. But that was just a tease for the growing number of people who've become accustomed to the GPS units in their cars.
Portable GPS devices have quickly gone from high-end curiosities to mass-market devices. In-car location trackers were the hot Christmas gift of 2007, and research firms estimated late last year that revenue would hit $50 billion in 2008 and $100 billion in five years. So far, the main benefactor has been Garmin, a GPS manufacturer that by most estimates commands more than 50 percent of the industry's American market share. The company posted record revenues in 2007.
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