Okay, this question may sound daft but after thinking about it for a while .... I am not so sure.
Given that the concept of GPS is to give you GLOBAL POSITIONING. Is there a technical (Not commercial technical) reason that manufacturers don't/can't produce a GLOBAL version of their portable GPS devices.
Is it just me or does the idea of a "whole world" basemap in a 2610 like device sound attractive.
The only point I can see why a manufacturer would not want to produce such a unit is because it may allow consumers real transparency in global pricing. Thereby turning the product into a commodity. Otherwise I don't see a reason why not.
Maybe the BMW Nat II could have been a Global device to allow for the £ premium and complements its "go round the world" motorrad products. Right now though, you have to change the device whilst you are going round the world. very clever.
Okay, this question may sound daft but after thinking about it for a while .... I am not so sure.
Given that the concept of GPS is to give you GLOBAL POSITIONING. Is there a technical (Not commercial technical) reason that manufacturers don't/can't produce a GLOBAL version of their portable GPS devices.
Is it just me or does the idea of a "whole world" basemap in a 2610 like device sound attractive.
The only point I can see why a manufacturer would not want to produce such a unit is because it may allow consumers real transparency in global pricing. Thereby turning the product into a commodity. Otherwise I don't see a reason why not.
Maybe the BMW Nat II could have been a Global device to allow for the £ premium and complements its "go round the world" motorrad products. Right now though, you have to change the device whilst you are going round the world. very clever.
I would hazard a guess and say that the amount of memory required to hold a complete map of the world would be astronomical, my SPIII uses 128MB to hold the full Uk. Secondly it would put the price up quite a bit. Just my opinion.
I would hazard a guess and say that the amount of memory required to hold a complete map of the world would be astronomical, my SPIII uses 128MB to hold the full Uk. Secondly it would put the price up quite a bit. Just my opinion.
Wouldn't have thought it would be too expensive Mick.......lthey have 40gig solid state memory in things like Ipods.....I'd guess you'd probably need a lot less than that for the information to fit into.
I reckon it's because there's not enough of a market for it......how many people would actually need one???
I guess the biggest problem is that US buyers would have to pay for the maps of Europe. This due to that US map data is free and many European countries charge for the use of map data (for which Garmin pays, and you pay in the end). This is why the European version is more expensive than the US version.
... On the other hand, I can't see that the European version can't include the "free maps"...
... Memory capacity is just a techincal limit in the end...
... And iPods (and other personal music players) use disc drives, more specifically PC-card size drives.
I would hazard a guess and say that the amount of memory required to hold a complete map of the world would be astronomical, my SPIII uses 128MB to hold the full Uk. Secondly it would put the price up quite a bit. Just my opinion.
WorldMap is 158.5MB for the whole world and with other products adding autorouting adds about 50% so a whole world autorouting basemap should be about 240MB.
GPScity quotes a 256MB SD card at US$75 and a 256MB CompacFlash card at US$65. I would expect Garmin to pay significantly less that this but for the sake of argument; Would you be prepared to pay an extra US$75 for a whole world basemap ?
I think you almost answered your own question - it's called a Global Positioning System, not a Global Mapping System. Any unit will give you your global position in Lat/Long. If you want maps to relate to these positions, that will cost you extra, sir.....
very clever.
