The ease of downloading additional applications from the AppStore is the iPhone’s greatest strength. These mini-apps are the future of cell phones and it will be interesting to see the first blockbuster.

Personally, the navigation maps are my favorite and I’m looking forward seeing the explosion relating to the expanded GPS capabilities of cell phones.

The Bad:
AT&T’s 3G network seems awfully slow, even in downtown DC. Sometimes, it seems like it’s barely working, I’m considering turning off the 3G chip to conserve power. Living and working in DC, most of the time there are plenty of unlocked WiFi networks available, but I have yet to encounter any WiMax networks. It’s obvious AT&Ts has oversold the capability of their 3G network.

Additionally, the back of the device gets ridiculously warm, sometimes almost too hot to touch while the battery only lasts about 1.5 days under moderate use.

Another gripe is that when texting, oddly, it’s impossible to use the keyboard horizontally. I prefer to use the keyboard this way since the keyboard is bigger and I tend to make fewer mistakes. The horizontal keyboard is available when using Safari, why isn’t it available when using SMS?

The Ugly:
Unfortunately, the iPhone has an exclusive agreement with AT&T. Healthy markets require competition and since the device is released under a single carrier, the AT&T/Apple partnership almost seems monopolistic. However, this behavior from AT&T should probably be expected from a former monopoly that has notoriously bad customer service.

Here is a list of 8 things that could be improved with the Garmin HCx.

1. Rubber around the perimeter of the device is starting to separate. It’s more apparent in warmer weather and it’s making the buttons less reactive and the device less waterproof. This problem is the glue that was used in the manufacturing; it appears to resemble rubber cement.

2. The time it takes to acquire satellites is sometimes ridiculous, even on clear days with no obstructions. While walking, it usually takes about 5 minutes. However, this lag time is greatly reduced when it’s being powered by fresh batteries.

3. It appears to be designed to be used in a person’s left-hand. Since I’m right-handed, all the buttons feel as if they are on the opposite side than where they should be.

4. The software is not open-source; the proprietary software makes it very difficult for developers to build custom applications. There would likely be dozens of additional mini-applications available if the software weren’t proprietary.

5. Although there are several ways to extract data from Garmin devices, Garmin provides an application called MapSource with their more expensive GPS handhelds. MapSource is relatively crude, it has only major roads, and it appears not to have any web integration whether it’s providing on-line datasets or assimilating web-based satellite images. Even zooming in/out seems odd to me.

6. Google Earth integration is lacking; it’s impossible to export files as kml or kmz in MapSource. However, it is feasible to use .gpx files in Google Earth, but tracks only appear as lines, not points. For me, I use freeware by GPSBabel to convert Garmin/MapSource data into Google Earth. Note: Google Earth Plus allows direct downloading and display from Garmin devices for a $20/year fee.

7. When the device in turned on and acquires initial readings, the first data point to be recorded will often have ridiculously high leg speeds. This quirk seriously alters the average speed, especially for short trips. Unless you’re traveling into space, the software should filter out these illogical numbers out.

8. When the device left on, the battery runs out. It would be nice if it automatically shut off when it’s not receiving satellite transmissions after 15 minutes or so.

I’m looking forward to obtaining a hand held GPS devices that has wireless functionality and open-source software. However, mobile phones will likely cannibalize most hand held GPS devices.

Nuvifone, where are you?

The sheer size of the conference was astounding; 14,500+ people, 250+ exhibitor booths, thousands of maps on display, and hundreds of technical workshops held in the colossal San Diego Convention Center.

Plenary Session:

On Monday morning, I joined the throngs of other conference attendees to experience the annual pilgrimage to the metaphorical geospatial Mecca to watch (the caliphate) Jack Dangermond speak.

When I first walked into the gigantic, darkened room, Mr. Dangermond’s face was on three massive movie screens. While it did initially appeared slightly fascist (eerily similar to Apple’s 1984 commercial), he talked lucidly for hours about ESRI and the state of industry.

He prophetically spoke about the future of GIS applications and how he envisions a “WebGIS” that will take the industry into a new GIS era. WebGIS should act as a “fusion center” (as he termed it) which will help bring GIS applications to the masses, allow GIS users to act more collaboratively, and facilitate integration of GIS into other (mobile) applications.

Furthermore, he spoke of how ad-hoc mashups will provide stimulus to the GIS industry, especially as GIS becomes more integrated into mobile applications. He discussed how consumers will soon be simultaneously using and uploading GIS data.

One of the more odd moments of this first day was when Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne had a presentation on the melting arctic ice caps and the need for spatial data to help tackle climate change. The picture below even has a polar bear in the background.

Later in the day, the Map Gallery opened with over 800 maps on display. The most beautiful maps were provided by National Geographic (of course) and Conservation International. However, one map that did catch my eye was created by an Albany, New York company named AWS Truewind, the map can be found in Google Maps here.

Exhibit Pavilion:

The exhibit pavilion consisted of 250+ booths, it was held in one of the largest rooms I have ever seen. I calculated the size of the room with laser provided by Lasertech and it measured 300 meters x 100 meters; over six American football fields could fit into the room.

It appeared that about half of the exhibit pavilion was occupied by private companies while the other half was inhabited by either by the federal government, defense firms, or ESRI.

Microsoft was one of the primary sponsors of the conference and it appears to be making a concentrated move into the geospatial realm. Google’s booth was much smaller and it seemed to be primarily promoting their Google Sketch product.

While Blackberry (with Motorola to a lesser degree) had  substantial presences at the conference , Apple and Nokia were nowhere to be found.

Notably, Garmin was absent. Their decision not to attend the ESRI conference is bewildering, especially with the upcoming release of the Nuvifone. The partnership opportunities seem limitless; the geospatial processing opportunities for any of their handhelds seems obvious.

Additionally, being a frequent user of Erdas IMAGINE, I was disappointed Erdas was not represented, though representatives of Leica were in attendance.

Technical Sessions:

I attended 8 or so technical sessions held throughout the convention center. Almost every session I attended was packed with people, most even had people standing alomg the back wall of the rooms.

Since most of the sessions were only 1.25 hours long, I feel the objective of these sessions was not so much “teach” but to demonstrate how easy it can be to use the applications.

Generally, I found the technical sessions to be rather basic, but that should be expected considering the brevity of most of the sessions.

Incidentally, Image Server demonstrations were a comically slow and during a Modelbuilder demonstration, ArcInfo crashed to great amusement among the audience.

Conclusion:

I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to see the ESRI International Users Conference; it was also great to see former colleagues and people from graduate school.

It’s obvious that the geospatial industry is growing; it appears to be vibrant, thriving and healthy.

It appears a rising geospatial tide is lifting all boats.

The world’s No. 1 navigation company cited economic concerns and high gas prices for causing a slowdown in the navigation market. Furthermore, a price-cutting war with European rival TomTom is cutting into profits.

Garmin also announced that it has again delayed the launch of the Nuvifone to the first half of 2009, saying meeting carrier-specific requirements will take longer than anticipated. The company has now pushed back the launch twice.

When Garmin originally announced their Nuvifone plans last January, the phone was intended to be sold as an unlocked device; the company now plans to release the device with a single or multiple wireless carriers. Garmin claims that the delay was due to “certification and optimization” required by their carrier-partners.

Oddly, all this bad news came as Garmin reported record sales and profits for the second quarter. Sales of their devices outpaced the industry in the U.S. and Europe and it has increased its market share worldwide.

Garmin did report a $66 million gain on the sale of (New Hampshire-based) TeleAtlas stocks to (Netherlands-based) TomTom, its primary competitor. Last year, Garmin bought the shares during an attempt to purchase the mapmaker .

The stock has now decreased by more than 50% in the last 52 weeks and it’s at the lowest price since March 2006.

Garmin’s foray into the cellular world is fraught with peril, the Nuvifone needs to be exceptional and reliable. The company does appear to be in a prime position to design and manufacture a GPS-enabled, spatial-centric cell phone.

Unlike the iPhone 3G, the Nuvifone will have an integrated GPS chip and will be able to provide turn-by-turn directions. The navigation functions on the Nuvifone could make the iPhones GPS capabilities look feeble in comparison.

It’s apparent that with each delay of the Nuvifone, the risks grow greater for Garmin.

Mobile phones based on Google’s Android operating system will compete against the iPhone and Nokia’s Symbian OS (Nokia paid $8.1 billion for Chicago-based Navteq last year).

One interesting aspect is the symbiotic nature of the agreement, it allows the Google community to send (verified) map corrections directly to TeleAtlas. This should allow the database to be more accurate. benefiting the consumer, Google, and TeleAtlas; it could be considered a proprietary, wiki-database.

This deal between Google and TeleAtlas is not only an illustration of the epic market for quality GIS data, it demonstrates the unpredictability of markets.

It’s difficult to imagine the founders of Navteq and TeleAtlas forsaw their companies would eventually be acquired by larger Finnish or Dutch corporations.

It offers some things not available on the iPhone such as voice directions, preloaded maps, and a built-in database with “millions” of points of interest. It will also provide unique services, for example, when used with a vehicle mount, it will be able to help drivers find their car by automatically marking the position where it was last removed from the vehicle.

Currently, Garmin has no plans on releasing an SDK to allow developers to create custom applications. This suggests that any software used on the phone will have to be corporate-approved or unlicensed hacks. This will put the NuviPhone at a distinct disadvantage to the 3G iPhone, which will provide an SDK and open OS.

After all, can a smartphone be considered “smart” without an open OS?

Nuvifone doesn’t have a carrier yet, so Garmin has the option of selling it as an unlocked device for use with any telecom provider. However, without carrier subsidies, the price may simply be too high to gain a large market foothold. Perhaps, it will be marketed to consumers not subscribed to AT&T.

Instead of being a challenger to the iPhone, the Nuvifone appears to be better positioned to be a competitor against Dash Express. Personally, I would like to see Garmin partner with Google to create a GPS-centric device to contend with the 3G iPhone.

The world awaits a smartphone where GPS is more than an afterthought.

Additonally, as alternative fuel sources (such as hydrogen and solar power) are being utilized in cars, location based services will be integral for the success of any non-petroleum fuel; consumers will need not only where to buy new fuels, but the most efficient route.

There are many ways to employ GPS in energy conservation, home environments can be altered in relation to the distance of the occupant(s). Home heating and air conditioning can be conditional on distance,  water heaters would be more efficient and appliances could better hibernate.

Spatial technologies should help people make more informed transportation decisions; software will be able to analyze individual movements and uncover ways to reduce energy consumption.

Energy independence will require innovation on a massive scale and spatial technologies are part of the solution.

In ancient times (pre-3G networks), GPS devices were closed mechanisms; a consumer was indentured with manufacturer-provided software. The 3G iPhone is unique since widgets will be available (wirelessly) to satisfy precise needs; from geotagging photos and virtual graffiti (and applications not imagined yet), there will soon be hundreds of free GPS-applications available.

Currently, major companies such as TomTom, (a Dutch maker of global automotive GPS systems) have announced plans integrate its GPS software with the 3G iPhone. Other companies such as Loopt already provide social mapping software on Apple’s AppStore.

Although some analysts may feel that after a surge of initial use, there will be a decline in GPS popularity due to privacy issues. However, younger consumers will likely have fewer privacy concerns as GPS technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous.

The release of the 3G iPhone is enormously important for both location-based services and GIS.

This is going to be huge.

The results indicated that the vast majority of people rarely traveled long distances, most people rarely traveling beyond several miles of a central point. People’s movements appear to follow a power law (or scale invariance).

The study established that nearly half of cellular users usually kept to a circle slightly more than six miles wide, while 83% of the people stayed within a 37-mile wide ring. Only 3% of the population regularly travels beyond a 200-mile wide circle, whereas less than 1% travels often beyond a 620-mile buffer.

Reading about this study provided me inspiration to better analyze the data I’ve collected from my GPS for the past 6+ months.

When examining my data points, the results indicate that over 25% of my data points occur within a mile from my primary residence. Additionally, roughly 65% of my GPS points fall within 3 miles of home. Some of this pattern is because I currently live in a dense, walkable part of DC; the distance between home and work less than 3 miles.

Here are the results in tabular form:

As GPS becomes more integrated into mobile phones, density maps will be effortlessly available to consumers. Furthermore, as location-based services continue to evolve, analysis of travel patterns on a massive scale will improve transportation design and allow for better containment of infectious disease.

Subscribers are able to use the service using cellphones or PDAs and it has been integrated into Dash Navigation devices. Due to time sensitivity requirements, Trapster combines WiFi technology (provided by Skyhook Wireless) with GPS to provide instantaneous locations. This likely allows Trapster to perform near populated areas due to WiFi coverage.

The service appears to free, though it is unclear how the site makes money since there aren’t any advertisements on its website.

It could be interesting to see what Trapster will do with its historical record of speed traps, future versions may be able to predict where speed traps will be, based on prior reports. This information could be especially valuable on infrequently used roads and areas with less WiFi coverage.

It appears the technology behind Trapster could easily be used for more benevolent purposes, perhaps other services could be able to alert local police/firefighters of accidents, crimes, or fires.

Representatives of Trapster contend that one of the benefits of a service like Trapster is that it will get people to slow down. While this view could be considered arguable, it’s certain that this is the beginning of spatial social networks.