The disadvantage since the user could not choose from other competitive or newer devices with better features since car companies do not change these features daily even if programmable just walk in and buy. Cell phones are great if you are walking but to use a hand held GPS poses safety risk in car issues as people have a tendency to hold phones in their hand and would not put it install the device hook in the car even if they had so it poses a hazard. Driving in one hand and losing emotion in a phone conversation.

I like the ease being able to choose and have option of purchasing a new gps or model personally.

However to integrate into a fun gizmo phone on the road is not my thing already people do too much weird stuff on the road like hitting brakes on the highway as happened to me more then once not to mention swaying in the lane or completely ignoring a green or red traffic signal
The person ahead of me was so much affected by his personal phone conversation that they literally braked on the highway and another halting traffic while finishing his conversation with cars beeping. So in my humble opinion I don’t think having to do away with GPS devices is a good strategy over phone GPS unless there is some means of improving the way it can be used which people even play games on another distraction since u have to key in coordinates of gps while already driving with one hand having focus of attention elsewhere.
Anyhow I don’t think the gps market should be done away with because of telephones.

Long live GPS devices and stomp your phone out. Use it for real business and not to baby sit you as you drive home.

What I would change to make it better is a free subscription to live traffic update. Also, regarding the traffic update I found that it offered me detours for traffic that had already dissipated. That was a bit troubling.
The only other issue I had was the bluetooth volume. Now that was EXTREMELY LOW. I could barely hear anything and that was sitting still!

Overall, a good quality product for the money.

“Consumer electronics, which represented 42 percent of fourth-quarter revenue, declined 4.6 percent on a comparable store sales basis. Within consumer electronics, a low-double-digit comparable store sales increase in flat-panel TVs and a triple-digit increase in GPS products led the revenue category.”

“…the company’s revenue mix continued to reflect a shift toward higher-ticket items, such as video gaming consoles, notebook computers, flat-panel TVs and GPS devices.”

“Revenue growth of 9 percent from new store openings and comparable store sales gains from notebook computers, GPS devices, video-gaming, home theater and mobile phones. These gains are expected to be partially offset by comparable store sales declines in music and DVDs.”

Does triple-digit growth signify a slowdown?

Sadly, the only positive thing to say about this article is that he didn’t use some lame cliche headline like, “Garmin is lost” or “GPS trying to find its way.” It’s not clever people- enough with the stupid headlines, really.

A GPS device is something that you dont miss much until you have it, and than you cant live without it. Sort of like the first time I got a cell phone. For a decent length of time I kept telling myself I did not really need one – albeit this was many many years ago.

The utility is tremendous. Even if you do not travel. And if you do travel at all, it is an indispensable piece of equipment.

As for cell phone based GPS – I dont think that is a viable option at all. The screen is too small, the UI is not meant to do GPS things, and all the other good reasons that others pointed out.