Motorola looking to produce a connected GPS unit?

Motorola's navigation line certainly isn't the firms most notable, but the Garmins and TomToms of the world are probably taking notice after an intriguing quote from product line manager Blake Bullock. According to TWICE, Mr. Bullock stated that Moto was "absolutely making a bigger play" in the PND arena. Specifically, he mentioned that it could "bring something new to the table with Motorola's vast experience in wireless connectivity," noting that it has "aspirations to combine the best aspects of 3G smartphones with PNDs [to] create optimized experiences for consumers." 'Course, we've no clue as to when, where and how the company will get its hands dirty with a web-savvy GPS unit, but considering its current state of affairs, we'd say yesterday would be a great time to get things rolling.

[Via GPS Tracklog, thanks Rich]

[Justin Paulson @ Apr 14th 2009 4:12PM]

I thought gadgets were moving more towards putting everything (GPS, Internet) on your phone, not putting more on your GPS. I just don't think we will see many GPSs in about 5 years. Why are they still worried about making them more powerful?

[CraigJ @ Apr 14th 2009 4:40PM]

I agree. The age of the uni-tasking device is coming to a close.

no dedicated GPS, BluRay player, etc for me.

[kosh56 @ Apr 14th 2009 6:46PM]

Really?!
I've done navigation with my phone. You can keep it. The screen is way too small and inconvenient.
It's the same reason big screen TVs are still selling. Many people don't want to watch movies on their iPods.

[Forcewinder @ Apr 14th 2009 4:18PM]

But can it play Crysis Wars?

[lxuke @ Apr 14th 2009 4:38PM]

the arrow looks phallic lol

[BK @ Apr 14th 2009 5:10PM]

Lets hope its better then their phones

[Carl @ Apr 14th 2009 6:15PM]

"create optimized experiences for consumers"? Is that the same as "building a SATNAV that people will like better"?

Where does this bizarre close-cousin to the English language that marketing people are so fond of come from? I'll bet Blake didn't "state" or "mention" any of these things. Rather, somebody in Marketing Communications carefully crafted a finely tuned quote over a period of several days and numerous managerial reviews before attributing it to the poor guy in a press release filled with equally tortured near-English constructs.

I'm not ragging on him personally or even Moto in particular -- this kind of stuff is everywhere. Optimized; experience; environment; social networking; do you ever use these words, or those sentence constructions, in your real life? It's been, I think, a decade since The Cluetrain Manifesto tried to tell us all: if you want to sound authentic, start by speaking in a natural voice, not something that sounds as remote as 19th century political speech.

Rant over. If you'll excuse me, I need to go and consume an optimized alcoholic beverage experience in a media-provisioned social networking environment. Or in other words: if anybody needs me, I'll be in the bar.

[Felix @ Apr 14th 2009 8:43PM]

My favorite post so far will be this one when I win.

[Rick @ Apr 14th 2009 10:45PM]

Well they better get it together quick. Garmin is about to release its GPS centric smart phone. The Nuvifone G60

http://www.garminasus.com/garminasus/cms/site/home/lang/en/phones

[JSWinston @ Apr 15th 2009 1:13PM]

Are you guys seriously thinking that standalone GPS units are dead? Every source out there has shipments being very healthy and growing for the next couple of years. Need a reason, no phone has a 4.3" or 5.1" display like a PND does. I saw the Nuviphone, no way it can replace a PND for every day navigation. A connected PND with real traffic updates, internet to find locations (ie restaurants as the iPHONE does), and a large screen so you can actually see it on your dash, yeah you can use your cell phone and get eye strain while I drive and see everything easily.

[CHILL_down @ Apr 15th 2009 7:11PM]