Thinking of dropping Tomtom for a Cell phone?

[Peter715]

I was reading this interesting article today and I have to say it has got me thinking.

I've never had a problem with Tomtom before but my latest device I have had to return twice. I'm sure it is just one of those things but having read this report from the UK I'm wondering if I should just get a new cell phone and use that as my PND.

Telmap is first choice for users versus Nokia, Garmin and TomTom

"London, 13th January, 2009: A new report from UK analyst firm Strategy Analytics has cited Telmap, a global leader in mobile search, mapping and navigation solutions, as users? preferred navigation solution above competitors Nokia Maps, Garmin and TomTom. The report also revealed that more consumers are ready to adopt mobile navigation in the UK in preference to the in-car PND."

You can read the whole thing here: http://www.realwire.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=10984

I'm just thinking there has to be a reason why people are choosing Telmap and turning to their phone for navigation. i mean, you can have everything on your phone now, Camera, MP3 player, go online, PND... Surely this is the way forward? Am I just having a bad day? I have always had my phone as a phone, my camera as a camera and my PND as my Tomtom but my thoughts, for at least today has taken a turn.

What do you guys think? What would you say the pros and cons are? I need some input on this as for the first time in my life I am thinking of dropping Tomtom!!!

(PS - Dear Moderators, I posted this in News as well by accident. I have tried to remove it but cannot find how. Please feel free to remove it from the News section as this is not really news. Sorry!!!)

 

[frankxs]

What do you guys think? What would you say the pros and cons are?

I would say...

1) Phones can do a lot of things half as good as a dedicated unit. If you only need them to be done half as good, you're fine with a phone.

2) Phones incur monthly expenses, not a one time expense. Over the course of a year the cell phone costs for some of these services can really add up. Especially since you almost always have to add on a fairly expensive monthly data plan (over and above the voice plan).

-Frank

 

[su_A_ve]

3) For driving, phone screens are too small. Unless you have iPhone or something with a full screen, then it would not be worth it.

4) It depends on who supplies the maps. AFAIK, the top two are teleatlas and navtech. So the maps would be the same

 

[sageuvagony]

As was mentioned by another member, the screen is very small.

You will also to have to buy some sort of mount so you can see it while driving. Also, if you lose reception while driving, your GPS feature drops as well. I would never trust a cell phone over a real GPS when doing really long trips. A cell phone will never compare to a REAL Satellite GPS system.

I could write at least 50 different reasons why a cell phone GPS isn't all that reliable compared to a real unit, but I'm very tired at the moment. Been sick all week.

 

[Peter715]

Sorry to hear you've been sick "sageuvagony" but thanks for your time.

All the points brought up make sense and i appreciate all you guys knocking me back into shape. I hadn't thought about the extra monthly data plan cost on the phone but the screen thing had crossed my mind. On my rant yesterday I was thinking of it being on a Iphone so the screen would not be to small but still, It would be a pain in the ass.

I do think that eventually phones will be up there competing with Satnav devices but right now nothing can compete with having the real thing.

I guess I was just having a rush of blood to the head but after reading how the UK is favoring using a phone, and with Tomtom being the biggest Satnav provider in Europe I thought it was worth asking the question, Why and should I?

Anyway, All good point, thanks!

 

[Michael Quinlan]

For a little over a year I used a flip phone with Telenav and/or ViaMoto for my GPS needs. For what I needed at that time, it worked well. On these products (at that time), display of maps while navigating weren't even an option - all you got was distance to next turn and one of several arrows representing the next turn. This worked VERY well, and I missed it quite a bit when I bought a Garmin c550.

The reason I went with a standalone PND was that I was that voice use of the phone started interfering with use for navigation, so the point where I would either miss turns (not knowing about them) or I would avoid using the phone for calls in order to lose my navigation ability.

I found Garmin's guidance to be so poor that I reverted to using the phone for almost all navigation. When I refer to guidance, I'm referring to identifying maneuvers required to keep you on the planed route.

After testing TomTom's guidance on a demo unit in a retail store, I found that it was significantly better than Garmin. When I discovered that I could configure a TomTom to give me "arrows only", like I had on my phone, that was enough for me to buy it. As it turns out now, I keep the map displayed anyway.

The reason I mention this is that if you choose to go with a phone to replace your TomTom, you should consider what display mode you're likely to use, and look at how good the guidance of any particular package is. Also, be careful which carrier you go with, as some only let the GPS on the phone work with their own software.

I use my TomTom on a daily basis to get me to service calls - several places a day that I've never been to before and probably will never go to again. If I only used GPS for personal use, I would probably go with something on my phone in place of a dedicated PND.

 

[Peter715]

Thanks Michael Quinlan, that was a good, honest insight. Admittedly you have got me back to Square one again, but I enjoyed reading your post.

I mean, what do I really use my PND for? I love having it, I update the maps, I buy funny celebrity voices for it (Mr. T rocks!), I even just bought a new case for it, but what do i use it for?

I for sure don't use my TomTom on a daily basis to do service calls!!!

 

[dhn]

For what it's worth, the province I live in (Ontario) has pending legislation banning any hand held devices including phones, mp3 players, and pnd's which would prevent the use of devices with navigation on them if the devices are not attached to the screen or dash.

In fact, one reported asked the Minister of Transportation when the legislation was first announced, "What if an ipod is attached to the dash?". His answer: "Uh, I'll have to get back to you on that"

 

[ericthered]

Sprint Navigation

Generally, SN works pretty well, when it works. The biggest problem I have had is fairly frequent problems getting logged in to the SN server. There have been times that it has taken over 30 minutes to get logged in.

So, I'd say that SN is better than nothing, because most of the time it does work. But if you need reliable navigation, you need a PND.

I use SN quite often as an alternative to 411 directory assistance. Also, there seem to be more POI's in SN than my TT930 and they are more up to date.

Finally, TT will not locate an address of the format 9W230 Finley Street, so I have to rely on SN for that too.

SN has multiple display options that are optimized for small screens, including one that is just a direction Arrow for next turn, signal strength, arrival time, etc. I have never found the display to be a problem, even on a small Sanyo 8400. The voice prompts are very good.

I have also found that SN has trouble in cities with high rises, can easily lose the GPS signal; more easily than the 930, which can also have some trouble.

 

[Old Baldy]

The biggest single factor, IMO, is the likelyhood of requiring navigation in areas with no cell signal.

In the UK, you will probably have no issue (a guess, due to the assumed density of cell coverage vs roads/highway system), but here in the USA, a MAJOR issue with cell-phone based systems that REQUIRE a data connection to a central server for the actual navigation routes and maps, is....the lack of cell signal in remote areas of the country. (Often the EXACT types of places where you REALLY want to have navigation, but can't)

There are, of course, cell-phone satnav systems that store the maps locally on flash memory on the phone, and have built-in program code stored on the phone to be effectively a standalone PND...such as the very nice Copilot system ( http://www.alk.com/copilot/ ) which I have used very happily in the past.

The other issue is dependant on the phone platform.....possible lack of touch screen functionality. I find that the Smartphone based systems without touchscreens are not anywhere NEAR as easy and nice to use as the PND or PDA-based phones with touchscreens, as moving around the menus via the phone's button and rocker/mouse is a pain in comparison.

Regarding the actual functionality of a system like Copilot, I find it BETTER than the majority of the dedicated PNDs....generally more configurable for display items, includes the VERY nice large next turn arrow display, includes cross-streets and bypassing town names, altitude, etc, etc, etc Much more info than a C550/C580 displays, for example.
The TomToms all display more and user-configurable data that the earlier Garmins ike the C550/580 do, although I have no experience with the newer Garmins.

All in all, I really liked the Copilot system and may well revert back to that, but ONLY if the phone I use has a built-in satelite based GPS, which my Blackberry Curve does not. My high-end HTC/AT&T Tilt WinMob6 phone does have a GPS, but this phone is absolutely unusable in anything approaching daylight due to a TERRIBLE screen. The PNDs are much better in this regard, in my experience.