CeBIT 2003
2. GPS Hardware


Intro

Bluetooth Receivers
Navman 4400
Leadtek 9537
Pretec Bluetooth GPS

Other GPS Receivers
Leadtek 9534 CF GPS
Sysonchip mouse and CF GPS
Pretec Gemini

Intro 

I've written it before, but it seems to me that the GPS hardware market has now reached a certain level of maturity in terms of hardware performance at least. The omnipresent SiRF IIe/LP chipset offers very fast signal acquisition and low power usage and future enhancements will probably come in the form of smaller form factors, lower power and software enhancements, such as the Xtrac recently introduced on the Holux Ultra CF GPS, but also what will result from SiRF's acquisition of Enuvis.

In effect, instead of breakthroughs, I saw some "catching up" in the field with the emergence of more Bluetooth solutions after those introduced by Emtac and Fortuna last year or the arrival of "dynamic" information like the traffic information offered by TMC and in the upcoming CoPilot Live software suite.

Bluetooth Receivers:

The Navman 4400 was first shown at CES in Las Vegas in January 2003 and was shown here in a slightly different form factor. The final version will be slightly smaller and will come in black. It uses the latest SiRF IIe/LP chipset and will be sold with a car holder and an armband holder for mobile operation. It should be released in the US in June, but its European release schedule hasn't been finalized yet.

The Navman 4400 comes with a DC plug (36xx style) and an antenna connector

 
Shown next to its big brother the iCN 630

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The Leadtek 9537 was also first shown at CES in Las Vegas in January 2003 and was shown here in what should be its final shape and form. As you can see from the pictures it is fairly close to the Socket Bluetooth GPS but is slightly smaller (67cc vs 77cc) and slightly heavier (78g vs 60g). It uses a smaller version of the MCX antenna connector too than most other GPS receivers. Of note is also the "SOS" button in the top left corner, which will apparently not be functional at first but could be used in the future as part of the E-911 mandate.
 

The Leadtek 9537 shown next to the Socket Bluetooth GPS. You can see the DC and antenna connectors
as well as the intriguing "SOS' button that will not be functional at first


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Courtesy of PocketPC Italia, here are pictures of the Pretec Bluetooth GPS for which little is known at this point. Some speculate it might be a rebadged Emtac Bluetooth GPS. Time will tell...

So do you think it's a rebadged Emtac ?

Other GPS Receivers:

Leadtek 9534 CF GPS arrives in its second incarnation after a first release in mid-2002. I was told that this unit was fully functional and that the problems of the first version had been resolved, but I don't have any release information yet. Like the 9537, it uses a smaller antenna connector than usual. It is shown here next to the Holux CF GPS GM-270 Ultra.

No doubt a small form factor down to the smaller antenna connector. We'll have to see performance now!

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Sysonchip GPS showed two receivers that seem to have been available for some time, a serial GPS with a separate display (for signal and battery strength) and a CF GPS receiver that is one of the smaller receivers in this format on the market at 100x47x16mm or 75cc (click on picture for more details)

    
Courtesy of PPC Italia                                                      

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The Pretec Gemini CF GPS seems to build on the low performance CF-LP GPS that was released earlier this year. If it's the case, it seems they've added 128mb of memory to this soft-gps (uses a Trimble chipset that relies on the CPU of the PocketPC to operate). Not a bad idea but I'm afraid performance won't be any better.

courtesy of PocketPC Italia

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