GPS Reviews : Time to Upgrade?
A lot of GPS reviews are geared toward the first time buyer. I write a lot of reviews like this. You know, the ones that tell you the basics and what you can get for under $200. What’s so amazing about the GPS marketplace, though, is how fast it’s matured.
I’m not sure in terms of percentages, but I would be willing to bet that maybe even half of the GPS devices sold are bought by buyers who are upgrading. I know when I go to online retail sites and read their customer comments that many of them are from second or even third generation buyers. A lot of the comments I get on my own articles, GPS reviews, and other websites are from people who already have a GPS and want a new one.
It wasn’t too long ago that all a GPS receiver could do was…well, receive! The whole thing of having a device with electronic maps that could tell you how to get places was so new and radical that just that was enough to make hungry shoppers fall all over each other as they pulled their credit cards out.
No longer!
Now, you can get the basic capabilities for under $200. Heck, you can get it for almost $100! But the GPS marketplace is populated with buyers who are more than willing to spend $250, $350, even $450. At those price points, there’s so much more technology available—so many more bells and whistles.
Look at it like this. Now, for less than $200, you can get Bluetooth capability for hands-free calling. The Tom Tom One XL has Bluetooth and a wider, 4.3-inch screen! It is currently selling for well under $200!
GPS reviews are now reflective of the fact that this market has matured and wants more than just the basic capabilities that any GPS worth its salt can do. Most reviews now focus on which units offer Bluetooth, which have real-time traffic, which have multiple point routing, that sort of thing.
It’s great that the marketplace has matured and that buyers like the whole idea of GPS so much that they are trading in their old models for much snazzier new models. The only downside to this is for entry-level buyers, the GPS marketplace is more complex than ever. Of course, one of the reasons I built this site was to solve that problem!
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