Sunday 9 September 2007

Road directory vs GPS

I was trying to escape from a bookstore the other day without spending too much money. I was given "Berlin" for Father's Day - you'd think a fat tome like that would keep the eyeballs busy for at least a few days, but if I see something good in a bookshop, I just have to have it. If enough horses die from the flu, maybe some cheap blinkers will come on the market and I'll be safe for once.

As I was walking around going, "I want that and that and that and that and.." I spotted a big display of street directories. It was about six feet tall, and held directories in a 3x6 stack. I looked it and thought, "..and I don't want that."

After leaving the shop, I started to think, "Who would want that?"

A directory still costs $30 or more, whilst a cheap GPS can be had for four hundred and something dollars. Yes, that's still a big differential, but the price of GPS units is dropping all the time, so I was wondering what will be the price point where people just stop buying paper based directories and the publishers give up printing them?

I am no forecaster, so I don't claim to have a clue. But given the number of sticky sucker things that hold GPS units that I am seeing on windscreens these days, the tipping point can't be that far off. Will the 2007 edition be the last street directory produced?

I doubt it. There will always be cheapskates that will buy a directory for $30 even when the price of a GPS has dropped to $100.

If they ever get that cheap. I understand a large part of the cost these days is the licensing for the maps, so unless Sensis cuts the licensing cost, there will always be a hard floor under the price of a GPS.

Food for thought.

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