They can use that line when they do layoffs: "Your creativity has now been freed from the need to preserve your salary here" :) - Private Sanjeev

With expensive roaming data plans, a standalone gps is still cheaper. Unless Google implements pre-caching of routes on google map/navigation. - Peng-Toh

Sanjeev, that is sometimes the way it works: everyone who ever said "best thing that ever happened to me was to quit or get fired." Peng-Toh, for people who roam that is a good argument. Not sure how many such folks exist. - Daniel Dulitz

Data roaming is VERY expensive. If you going on a vacation in foreign land, it'll be far cheaper to buy a Garmin map. Or do without GPS. Or rent a car that comes with GPS. - Peng-Toh

Or buy a prepaid SIM card for data roaming. Or find a wifi access point to get the directions. But anyway, GPS/nav companies will not stay in business selling gadgets to people who would otherwise use data roaming. They will stay in business because they'll remake their business. - Daniel Dulitz

Disruption does have a cost. Plans are scuttled, investment is wasted. Garmin's headquarters are in Olathe, Kansas -- if the company can't make it, employees may have trouble finding similar employment nearby, and families may suffer. The eulogies are premature in any case -- but what would you do if you were in charge of Garmin, Daniel? - ⓞnor

Perhaps I should have gotten a prepaid SIM card with data while I was in London for a month. My voice calls cost me US$2.20/minute. Ouch! I don't even want to know what the $/kb roaming rates are. But I made do without data access since I didn't drive there. Otherwise, I would have picked up a Garmin map instead. - Peng-Toh

If I was Garmin, I'd build a unit that cached all of Google maps over wifi or on a cable. - Piaw Na

I bet the map images are less important than the routing info. - Andrew C from Android

And Google's routing algorithm still sucks if you're a cyclist. Garmin will continue to dominate the outdoor space. - Piaw Na

Isn't that way, way smaller than the car gps market? - Andrew C from Android

Yes. From Garmin's 2008 annual report (the latest available), they made $323 million in aviation, $204 million in marine, $428 million in "outdoor and fitness", and $2.54 *billion* in automotive. Good news for Garmin: they will continue to dominate the industry that represents less than 15% of their current revenue. - ⓞnor

Caching google's images would violate copyright? It is possible on a jailbroken iphone. - Peng-Toh

Garmin will have to innovate in the car gps market as opposed to milking a cash cow. For example, voice plus HUD would be nice. So is a faster locking GPS plus faster updates. My PerformanceBox locks in a few seconds and updates 10 times a second. - Peng-Toh

ⓞnor, I would focus on avionics, marine, ruggedized and water-resistant consumer units that can take lots of abuse, low-power units, emergency beacons to put in your trunk or your kid's lunchbox, inertial sensors to deal with dropouts, WAAS in every unit. Personal avalanche kits for skiers. Large screens with specially-designed antennas for maximum coverage/reliability. Devices to track and protect valuables. Heads-up and retinal displays. I would push for a WiFi/Bluetooth standard so that all nearby devices can use the higher accuracy/reliability of a standalone GPS. I would develop beautiful, easy-to-use UIs. Possibly use Android: the market for ruggedized consumer cellphones seems to be open for the taking. Since they're in their business and I'm not, I'm sure their ideas are 100x better than mine. But they were nowhere near their potential on the path they were on. - Daniel Dulitz

Yeah, but that 50% profit margin from selling maps? That's going to go away no matter what. They will never be as profitable as when they could sell you a piece of plastic (or a chip) for $100+. And worse, charge you again for the same data whenever you upgraded to a new device. They lost a lot of customer goodwill with that move. - Piaw Na

I use OnStar in my Buick, IMO far better than GPS for routing wiith road side assistance and talk to a real person for things like restaurant suggestions. - WarLord

Maps? I never buy maps. There's enough good free maps :) - Peng-Toh

ⓞnor, I don't know what you're talking about. Navigating by train and bus is a huge, huge market -- I don't know anyone who uses a car. - j1m

PT, you've obviously never tried to find all the small roads that get you from one place to another in Europe. Michelin maps rule! - Piaw Na

I think expectations get confused. An income of $323M + $204M + $428M would be considered very successful by some standards, so it's not like the whole company will vanish when they're still pulling in over a billion annually. Any business will eventually find that some sectors become less profitable. The newspaper industry, for example, can still make quite a bit of money, even if it can't support quite the same number of companies as it did when most people actually found value in having the printed paper show up at the doorstep every day. Things people value change - this isn't some new revelation, just every day business happening on a faster scale. Oh yeah, and OnSpy sucks. I'll never own a car that someone else can kill remotely without my permission. - Mr. Gunn