Originally Posted by
njkayaker
Turn-by-turn (by itself) isn't enough. I'd like to try their app on a phone but it still has all the problem of smartphones (and the limitations of the RFLKT+).
Ridewithgps is very focused on bicycle navigation (and they are fairly smart), which might make them a good opportunity. Of course, to use the app, you need a $6 month subscription, which you have to include in the analysis of cost.
Most of them characterized by various degrees os suckitude. Ridewithgps might be an exception. These might actually not taking over market share much at all (they may mostly appeal to people who would never buy a Garmin in the first place).
For your limited use, the 1000 was a silly purchase. The 1000 isn't really targeted to "most cyclists" anyway.
But not "a LOT" of cases with batteries that are also weather resistant. Not even a lot of the better weather resistant cases. And you need a mount too. And it would be huge.
What may happen is that Garmin is driven out of the market leaving cyclists with something that doesn't work as well for them.
The Garmin phone was a not a good product. It's not the "same movie". It wasn't reasonable to have expected that Garmin could have been able to compete with established smartphone manufacturers in a mature industry. We don't have any details of the development process of the Garmin phone anyway.
For about the umpteenth time - it's not an either/or thing. But it is a seriously disruptive problem for the PND guys.
I very specifically used the word "sidle". For your reference, here's the definition: "walk in a furtive manner, unobtrusive or timid manner; especially sideways". The idea being that they are carefully sneaking into the PND suppliers market and taking away market share -
classic guerrilla marketing. They come in cheaply, gain market share, then gradually keep extending their position without confronting frontally. That's exactly what's happening here.
I'm not arguing that Garmin SHOULD be driven out of the market, I'm arguing that this disruptive technology is a serious problem for them and going to get more serious and I'm wondering how they will address it and if they will be successful in NOT being driven out of the market. On the other hand, wishing for this to go away and leave PND based solutions alone is never going to happen - that ship sailed a couple of years ago.
J.