Why GPS?

08 Feb Why GPS?

Really? Why would still I need a stand-alone GPS instead of just using my smart phone?

Just ask the 260,000 or so people that have bought Garmin GPS from me over the last couple years.

Our world seems to be changing at an unfathomable pace. We are now living in the time of specialty services rather than one-size-fits-all type products. That’s why Garmin is relevant now more than ever. With 660,000 people using electronics while they are driving a car at any given daylight moment in the US, I believe any advantage you can give yourself to be safer behind the wheel is worth it.

What if you could talk to your electronics and they talked back with you without ever touching them? Yes, cars will be driving themselves in the very near future. I’ve seen them at the Consumer Electronics Show just this past January. Personally, I like to save my money and pay cash for a reliable used car so I may never own the wonders of engineering that I see at industry shows in Las Vegas, Shanghai and around the world. So what do we do in the meanwhile–between now and when these technologies are developed and priced where we can afford them? The answer:  A dedicated GPS whose one and only job is to get you to your destination more quickly and efficiently and safely than ever before.

How?

1. Voice command. Same concept–and predecessor–to Alexa and Siri. You just talk to it. So your hands are on the wheel, your eyes are on the road. Isn’t that what driving a car should be like?
2. Dedicated satellite technology. GPS (global positioning systems) communicate with satellite that are orbiting Earth. Cell phones communicate with cell phone towers, here on planet Earth, and that’s why the signals are not as reliable.

To elaborate, when you are using your cell phone for GPS what happens? Wanna grab lunch? Oops–that was a text coming through. Interrupting the thought. Oops. The average time your eyes are off the road while reading that text is 5 seconds. Doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that at 55 miles per hour you would have driven the length of a football field in 5 seconds without having your eyes on the road.

I’m not pointing fingers. I am guilty. When my young daughter asked me to put down my cell phone while I was driving I realized that the temptation is just too great. If your cell phone is within reach it’s a danger to you and everyone else on the road.

Ok, I’ll give it to you. Smart phones have brought the extinction of a lot of specialty electronics. I’ve lived it, watching digital point and shoot cameras dwindle in sales before my eyes because the cameras in our cell phones are pretty impressive for every day pictures. In 2009, over 200,000 people bought a digital camera from me at HSN. Last year, sales for my brands in digital cameras were probably 10% of that. However, this is not the case for GPS. My Garmin GPS units are more popular in the last year than ever before.

My advice? None, really. My only goal is to offer insight and information based on almost 20 years of presenting electronics on television and digitally. Try it for yourself and you be the judge.