Standalone GPS on the way out

I’ve blogged many times about this, and now here’s a hard fact: SIRF, a leading maker of GPS chips is restructuring its operations citing soft consumer demand.

As GigaOM writes, this is but the start: smartphones are going to stomp all over the PND (portable navigator device) market – it all comes to the war for the second pocket, which in my opinion is over already, as I don’t see anyone who can credibly dislodge iPods from that spot and the attempts to merge phones and PMPs are not going anywhere: iPhones, for all their hype, are just being used as phones (who would f*@k the battery on his/her phone just to listen to some music ?)

But more geo-aware phones don’t necessarily mean more GPS chips – I was astounded at how capable is Google Maps to pinpoint my position using just the cell triangulation: maybe a dedicated chip is more precise, but believe you me, this is more than enough and comes FREE !!