How the heck did my parents ever find their way around the eastern seaboard when I was a kid and take us to visit every Civil War battlefield every summer without GPS, that cute little gadget everyone is now addicted to?
I mean seriously, how the heck did we manage without navigation devices and cell phones and Internet-enable devices to live our lives?
Well, I do remember getting lost quite a bit. And there was the constant crinkling of paper maps being shoved between the front seats and the sight of my father pulling off interstates to take short walks.
And there was the excitement of my parents trying to find a cheap motel at dusk in some tiny little upstate town that shut down at 4 p.m. every day.
That’s likely not happening much on the country’s highways or back roads these days as the love for GPS devices just keeps growing and growing and growing.
A new report claims worldwide GPS smartphone shipments will spike 34 percent this year alone, going from 57 million last year to 77 million this year. The research from Strategy Analytics claims the more the technology is embedded in portable handsets, the more people will become addicted and in love with it.
“GPS smartphones, such as the Nokia N97 and iPhone, are a high-growth segment that continues to expand even during the current, tough economic times,” Joanne Blight, navigation director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement.
Neil Mawston, the research firm’s wireless director, points to two key aspects in sales growth. One is consumer demand for vehicle GPS devices, and the other is the fact that GPS technology is improving every day. It also doesn’t hurt that major handset makers like Nokia and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion are plugging GPS into more handsets.
But I think there’s another compelling reason: We just don’t seem to have the luxury anymore of wasting time. Anything that gets us where we want to go, as fast as we can, seems to be the mantra these days.
Yet when I look back on all those times my family got lost, I wouldn’t trade them for the world. While the quest was to visit historical landmarks, we made discoveries, about places and ourselves, that we never intended. And that, as the commercial goes, is priceless.
Photo courtesy of Garmin.