In article <5fbqjnF3ad190U1@mid.individual.net>, Rod Speed
<rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:

> > Here's the reason for my question:
> > if these phones actually use GPS, and are therefore
> > full GPS units, why is anyone trying to sell GPS units?
>
> For the same reason that we see cellphones with built in media
> players and cameras and separate media players and cameras too.
Reasonable. But why wouldn't more cell makers try to build on that?

> > Why aren't the cell makers building all GPS
> > features into their already-capable phones?
>
> Because app accessible GPS isnt the same as what satisfys the
> legal requirement for location good enough for the 911 service etc.
That's strange, because I don't know how much you can lose of GPS
ability and still get a location.

> > (Note that giving directions is not a GPS
> > feature, but an application of GPS info.)
> > Why are all GPS devices larger (some by several times)
> > than all cell phones, when small size is just as useful to those?
>
> Mainly because mapping needs a better screen than the smallest cellphone
> screens.
You'd think so, conidering how much info a map has to offer. But some
GPS are very low-res, even with map viewing.

> There are satnavs that are otherwise as small as cellphones.
Yeah, probably. The ones I know aren't the most expensive, and the
smaller of the ones I know are arm-band units.

> > Why aren't better GPS features appearing in cell phones?
>
> They are, most obviously with the Nokia N95 which has full routing just like
> a satnav.
That's neat.

> > I think the reason is that they don't have GPS
> > at all, but a simpler triangulation off cell antennas.
>
> You're just plain wrong. If that was true, they wouldnt be able to show the
> number of GPS satellites currently in view, and they can and do show that.
But I'm still talking of the ones that don't, which seems to be almost
every cell phone.

> > That may be enough for E911, maybe even for giving directions,
> > but it doesn't give them the right to call it GPS or take advantage
> > of the popular assumption of GPS accuracy.
>
> They have real GPS anyway.
Right; my statement is about if they do NOT.

> > It's not a satellite system and it's not global and it
> > doesn't deserve the acronym or the reputation.
>
> Pity about the cellphones which have real app accessible
> GPS and show the number of GPS satellites currently in view.
Again, my statement was (very clearly, I thought) about the units which
do not. Isn't that nearly all of them?