“Buried in the usual WWDC keynote fanfare was, I believe, the most disruptive announcement made by Apple: updated maps and mapping features for the iOS platform,” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes for ZDNet. “Now, on the face of it, maps might not seem either all that sexy or disruptive, but the mapping platform built into the iPhone and iPad is quite a core feature that’s leveraged throughout the platform. By replacing Google’s mapping service with its own — using data from companies such as TomTom and OpenStreetMaps and others — Apple is putting itself at the center of the action.”
“However, there was more to the mapping announcement than just a change of provider. Apple also unveiled a new and highly requested feature — turn-by-turn navigation. This is where the new mapping app starts to become disruptive,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “This has significant implications for the entire in-car GPS market. And by implications, I mean casualties. And those casualties will be companies that sell in-car GPS receivers, companies such as TomTom and Garmin.”
Kingsley-Hughes writes, “Apple sells millions of iPhones and iPads every quarter, and these people no longer need to buy a secondary device to get them from A to B… In addition, vendors such as TomTom and Garmin also earn a significant revenue from selling annual map updates. iOS users will save money here because the maps will not need updating because Apple will be handling that at their end. This saves the owner a significant chunk of change, and will hurt the bottom line of the in-car GPS vendors… But that’s not all. The existing GPS vendors are going to get hit a third way. All the big names have apps which replicate their in-car GPS hardware experience on the iPhone or iPad.” No need for those apps now.
Kingsley-Hughes writes, “With iOS 6, Apple will put an in-car GPS receiver into the hands of millions of people, and that is going to have a very serious effect on the in-car GPS market… A year from now the in-car GPS landscape is likely to be a very different place.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Imagine being a fly on the boardroom wall in Garmin HQ this morning. We can almost hear their CEO:
“We have our strategy. We’ve got great GPS devices in the market today. You can get a Garmin nüvi 1100LM for $89. It’s a very capable machine. It’ll do street maps. It’ll do turn-by-turn. It’ll do rerouting. It’ll do voice-prompts. Right now, we’re selling millions and millions and millions of turn-by-turn voice navigation devices a year; Apple is selling zero turn-by-turn voice navigation devices a year. So, I kinda look at that and I say, well, ‘I like our strategy. I like it a lot.‘”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
TomTom is a partner with Apple on this, I’m not sure how this hurts them if they are getting revenue from it.
The problem is that Apple does not pay them much money. They earn much more by providing direct service.
So Apple (most probably it was Jobs) came and said: “Will will use you or Garmin. So you either will earn nothing, or at least something. What will you decide?”
Not much of the choice for TomTom.
Great take, MDN! Beautifully done satire.
Nav is a natural extension for search when not buying online.
If you are in another city and need to get something and a Siri query tells you that you can get it locally and also leads you to the store while avoiding traffic delays and such, how valuable is that?
I’d pay a dollar for that!
😀
Maybe all of the 7.85 inch iPad rumors are actually going to be in-dash units for vehicles.
Absolutely. I’ve been saying this to the naysayers, an iPad with a 7.85″ screen is a perfectly pocket portable device, unlike an iPad, with loads of screen real-estate; it’s the same size as a paperback book, and an ideal size for map display.
I have the whole of the UK in 1:50k Ordnance Survey on my iPad, along with CoPilot, and it’s fantastic, much better than my iPhone, but as an in-car unit? Nah. A smaller version, on the other hand, I can see being incorporated easily into cars in the dash, and rear headrests for video, or just handheld for games.
To those who say it’ll never happen, well, possibly, but Apple create devices for those with the imagination to find uses for them. Imagination you clearly lack.
MDN’s take assumes the Garmin’s management went to the Steve Balmer School of Management. That’s not so clear. Time will tell. But in any case, if you own Garmin stock, I’d suggest you sell…
This is my favorite site (home page) and I especially like the MDN take on articles. As much as I may agree with them I don’t ever recall giving a smile or a chuckle after reading them. This one gave me an audible chuckle. Thanks!
Thank you!
So…how will that work on an iPod Touch running iOS 6?
Does the iPod touch have GPS and a radio for sending and receiving data?
Garmin is not limited to the consumer “turn by turn” market. Although their revenue from consumer devices is attractive, their presence in aviation, marine and military applications should keep them around for the foreseeable future.
I was excited too about Apples new turn by turn but turn by turn and fly over will only work on iPhone 4S and iPad 3rd gen. I have the 4th gen iPod touch and I bought the TomTom car kit through Amazon for like 20 bucks. I can use it with most GPS apps and it works great. I prefer using Motion X GPS with it, it’s only .99 cents
Also an iPad 2 with a cellular Carrier!
Doesn’t anyone else have a yacht?
Garmin has a lock on boats. Fish finders, sonar, GPS, charts, Garmin has if covered. I can’t see Apple fixing that market for a year or two.
@matt
Wile iOS is available for iPod touch 4th gen and iPhone 4, and maps will be available for them too, turn by turn isn’t.
It’s only available for iPhone 4S, ipad 2 and later
This will def kill the weaker brands but there will still be a market for full blown, large screen, GPS devices; like the ones used by truck drivers and avid travelers. This will do to consumer GPS what the (Apples) camera phone did to the point-n-shoot industry. DSLR’s and Pro-sumer cameras are still doing fine.
What exactly did the iPhone do to the point-n-shoot industry? The Powershot I bought last year still takes *far* better images than my iPhone 4S camera. The camera in the phone is fine for those casual pictures that are spontaneous, but a good point-n-shoot still takes far better images and gives you far better control over the photography for those times when you know ahead of time that there will be pictures to be taken. Put another way- I use the point-n-shoot (or an SLR) for images that I would use as my MacBook Pro’s desktop image, or for images I would include in a book or calendar. The iPhone camera is *sometimes* suitable for casual pics that I might post to Facebook, where resolution and image quality aren’t as important.
Apple has indeed disrupted the casual photography market with the iPhone. (Smartphones in general have.) More people buy iPhones nowadays than point-n-shoot cameras, and while very few people take their cameras with them everywhere, nearly everyone who has a smartphone takes it with them everywhere.
I can’t remember which famous photographer said: “The best camera in the world is the one you have with you.”
I have a Garmin that I still use in one vehicle but largely my primary GPS device has been an android phone with Google’s excellent navigation app.
So yeah more phones with turn by turn will hurt the market somewhat.
What’s up with the rumors that only the 4s and ipad2 will get turn by turn?
And this will work in areas w/o cel reception?
nope. Apple still will need to catch up on off-line mapping.
Except for the fancy you need a 3G connection for any maps and no usgs maps for back woods stuff. Once again MDN is full of crap.
Did anyone notice the automakers adding a button to the steering wheel to activate Siri Turn By Turn? The list included GM, Chrysler, Audi, BMW, VW, Mercedes, Toyota, and Honda.
Noticeably missing is Ford whose MyTouch is done by Microsoft. This is why Ford owners need to pull a fuse to reset MyTouch which regularly bombs. If an upgrade comes out, the owner must make a service appointment.
Sounds about right for a Microsoft “value added solution”..You need an MCSE to update your car…LOL
A MCR (Microsoft Certified RoadBlock) is needed to do the upgrade? That should not surprise me
Garmin still has a lot of devices in nautical, flight and motorcycle (weatherproof) markets that the iPhone can’t service. Heck, the damn thing doesn’t even know where it is with no network available. Also if i would be using the iPhone on a trip to europe it would kill the travel budget on data use alone. Tomtom with only car and moto navi (one trick ponyshow) is the one that is lucky now.
I live in California. It is illegal to use a cell phone while driving. It is illegal to use an iPhone (or other smart phone) for ANY PURPOSE while driving. No Maps, no voice memos, no instant messaging. It is illegal to use the Maps app on an iPhone while driving, but it is not prohibited to use a dedicated (non-phone) device such as provided by TomTom and Garmin.
Dear Judge:
My iPhone was in single-app-mode, therefore it complied even with your bankrupt and corrupt nutjob-packed state’s stupid fscking “law.” Case closed.
And *that* is an idiotic law, serving the heat of the moment without actually solving anything. I predict if Apple does make a mini-iPad that can dock with the car, that the law will be changed.
It’s not really that big a deal. I use Mapquest 4 Mobile on my iPhone all the time for turn-by-turn. The difference now is that it will be preloaded and supported natively.
I have had TomTom on mobile devices long before there was an iPhone and I have it on my iPhone now. But as others have indicated, the problem with Apple’s product/solution is that cell coverage is required. What is to done when there is no cell coverage or SIRI is unresponsive? I still have to revert to a third party voice dialer when SIRI won’t respond. Similarly, I expect that I will continue to need and use TomTom.
Even before Apple makes the maps upgrade, my iPad has better mapping than my wife’s Highlander nav system. I started looking into hacking an iPad for use as a nav system in the next car I buy. People are doing this as can be seen sites such as GPS Review. A couple of interesting issues. If the iPad is out do satellite line of sight! A remote receptor might be needed. Its GPS works without cellular, but it will be a dot on a blank background without online maps unless you store maps on the iPad. I looked at an Audi with a nav screen that resembles an iPad attached to the dash and which will use Google Maps and Google Earth. I’m dreaming about an iPad with iOS 6 instead!
Well, at least TomTom will continue to collect revenue on the millions of iOS devices running iOS6. I’m sure that will make up for some lost sales.
Instead of embracing the iPhone from the get go, like TomTom, Garmin decided to make their own competing smartphone. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Apple chose to work with TomTom instead of Garmin.
I’d forgotten about the Garmin phone, thanks for the reminder.
I imagine Garmin were considered for mapping and traffic information so, presumably, they didn’t want to play ballnwith Apple, or wouldn’t agree to supply at the price Apple wanted. I bought a Garmin device 2 years ago and missed the brief window allowed for a free map update – not realising the device shipped with very old maps. When I contacted Garmin they were immovable on their policy, so I have been driving around on old maps… Having been ripped off by Garmin once, I bought a Tom Tom next time. And, at every opportunity, I fell people what an arrogant, deceitful and unpleasant organisation Garmin is.
Good, ’cause the GPS in my Acura sucks.
Still, I hope you have an option to keep your maps pre-loaded (or at least cached) on your iPhone.
Relying on a turn-by-turn nav system, which relies on an internet connection: no, thank you (been there, not cool).
Does anyone know what the story on that is ?