Do the GPSr manufacturers take us seriously?

[+team-grannygear]

I was wondering this as I was getting myself set up for paperless caching. I am happy with GSAK and Cachmate, etc, but I could not help but wonder why the Garmin/Magellan/whatever folks do not step up to the plate and bundle a native software that works seamlessly with GC.com and the GPS, allowing a one step jump to the unit with features like GSAK offers, or at least close to it.

 

My Magellan software does this...sort of, but is really rudimentary, maybe Garmin is better. I wonder if it is because:

• we are a new sport/hobby and they have not caught up yet
  

• we are not that big of the market to spend the time and money on developing that kind of thing
  

Maybe I am missing something, being rather new to this stuff, but it seems like there is a market for a more dedicated to Geocaching GPSr with a nice bundle of user friendly software to take a lot of the 'hoops' out of the jumping in process.

 

But hey, I am having a blast anyway.

[wolfbait]

Of corse they do... one wrong move and we have their companies co-ords in our gps and were starting a riot lol

[+wesleykey]

What kind of GPS do you use? My Garmin 60CS has a geocaching mode. I can search for nearby geocaches and mark them as "found" on screen for later retrieval.

[+Airmapper]

Lowrance has added Geocaching related icons to their newest units. I think that shows they are paying attention.

[+Woodlit]

My garmin also has a geocache mode. It uses geocache icons, with a found or not found mode.

 

But I understand what you saying. I often wonder that myself. If garmin were to come out with a program such as gsak, i'd be sure to use it. Not to knock gsak in anyway, but with garmins resources i'm sure they would be able to create excellent software.

[+darkdoug]

Something interesting I saw in the pre-Christmas adds relates to this. The add was from Academy, a Sports store down here, can't remember which GPSr it was for but in the picture next to the GPSr was a guy holding the GPSr near a ammo box clearly bearing the Geocaching.com logo.

Edited December 28, 2006 by darkdoug

[mtbikernate]

Garmin only fairly recently ventured into the realm of seamless integration of its GPS receivers and a web-based system. Check out www.motionbased.com. The site started on its own, and became such a draw that Garmin bought it and developed software so that some of its GPS receivers would work seamlessly with it. It's big with both the running and the biking crowds, which, hate to say it, are MUCH larger than the geocaching crowds.

 

To get this sort of thing started, though, it would probably require an independent person with programming knowledge to step up and do it. GSAK is an example of someone stepping up and writing a program to solve a problem, but further integration into the website would require cooperation (or even the initiative) from someone within gc.com.

[+team-grannygear]

Yeah, I have that stuff in the Explorist...geocache folders, got to, found, etc. But some of the other posts are closer to what I meant. I think that they have not quite figured us out yet, but if I had to bet, I would not be surprised if somewhere in meeting rooms and drawing boards if there is not a marketing plan for us cachers.

 

If not, there should be.

[Clan Riffster]

When the "x" series of Garmins came out, they had upgradable storage via micro-SD cards, not unlike some of the Magellans. I wrote an E-mail to Garmin & Magellan suggesting that one of their software designers look at Cachemate and either replicate its function, or purchase it outright, with the ultimate goal of having a hand held GPS with PDA type data storage. I suggested that, which ever company came out with such a GPSr, would own the Geocaching market.

 

Neither company bothered to reply.

[+team-grannygear]

When the "x" series of Garmins came out, they had upgradable storage via micro-SD cards, not unlike some of the Magellans. I wrote an E-mail to Garmin & Magellan suggesting that one of their software designers look at Cachemate and either replicate its function, or purchase it outright, with the ultimate goal of having a hand held GPS with PDA type data storage. I suggested that, which ever company came out with such a GPSr, would own the Geocaching market.

 

Neither company bothered to reply.

 

It does not surprise me that they did not reply. If they developed something like that and you had some record of your suggestion/their reply then some lawyer could get involved $$$. Of course, I am cynical that way.

 

So, you can pick one as you like:

 

#1 - Your suggestion was so stunning in its clarity and insight as to render them speechless and set a fantastic chain of events in motion that has not been revealed yet ....or

 

#2 - You are an insignificant gnat on the flyscreen of GPSr-dom and you were dismissed as so much gibberish from the common man.

 

Personally, I like the first one.

[+welch]

Do the GPSr manufacturers take us seriously?

 

I think they listen, or at least pay attention since both garmin and magellan have geocaching info/links on their own websites. Some newer garmins (maybe magellan too?) have a 'geocaching' mode. Magellan has sponsored a geocaching like adventure contest in the past, and even used some geocachers to hide the treasures.

 

As for making intergrated geocaching software / unit I don't know. My guess would be that there are not enough people that would buy it... I mean while most all geocachers use GPS units, not all gps user are geocachers (I wonder what the percents would be ). And then you have to consider that when garmin/magellan makes software its proprietary, which is important since not all geocachers use the same brand unit, let alone any given unit. Finally those in the targe group would need to also be those that would buy maps/new maps or maybe even a whole new unit(??). So by the time you get down to that sub group, are there enough consumers to payback the R&D, and make a profit?

(GPSr units>that geocache>using X brand>and buy additional maps>[would buy THIS map/unit])

[+Alan2]

I'm not a computer expert, but GSAK and GPXSONAr and the like work on a Windows based system. If Garmin or other mfr's. added Windows software to their GPS to operate these other programs, you could probably add non-Garmin mapping software screwing up these mfr's proprietary software marketing effort around maps which is quite lucrative. They wouldn't want you adding your own ANtional geographic Topo, or Windows Street and Trips etc.

[+Prime Suspect]

I was wondering this as I was getting myself set up for paperless caching. I am happy with GSAK and Cachmate, etc, but I could not help but wonder why the Garmin/Magellan/whatever folks do not step up to the plate and bundle a native software that works seamlessly with GC.com and the GPS, allowing a one step jump to the unit with features like GSAK offers, or at least close to it.

 

My Magellan software does this...sort of, but is really rudimentary, maybe Garmin is better. I wonder if it is because:

• we are a new sport/hobby and they have not caught up yet
  

• we are not that big of the market to spend the time and money on developing that kind of thing
  

Maybe I am missing something, being rather new to this stuff, but it seems like there is a market for a more dedicated to Geocaching GPSr with a nice bundle of user friendly software to take a lot of the 'hoops' out of the jumping in process.

 

But hey, I am having a blast anyway.

Garmin has also added support for GPX files. I can take a pocket query, open in directly in Garmin's MapSource, and load the whole thing right into my GPS.

[+JDandDD]

Magellan has gpx compatibility as well. In fact, you can exchange gpx files between Garmin's and Magellan's though your icons will change. I do that now, making gpx files in Magellan lite and transferring them to Mapsource and directly to my Garmin's gpx directory on the unit.

 

JD

[Digital_Cowboy]

My garmin also has a geocache mode. It uses geocache icons, with a found or not found mode.

 

But I understand what you saying. I often wonder that myself. If garmin were to come out with a program such as gsak, i'd be sure to use it. Not to knock gsak in anyway, but with garmins resources i'm sure they would be able to create excellent software.

 

Earlier this year when I did an upgrade to my eTrex it installed the icons for a geocache and a found geocache. What I'd like to see is an icon for benchmarks.

 

Digital_Cowboy

[Digital_Cowboy]

My garmin also has a geocache mode. It uses geocache icons, with a found or not found mode.

 

But I understand what you saying. I often wonder that myself. If garmin were to come out with a program such as gsak, i'd be sure to use it. Not to knock gsak in anyway, but with garmins resources i'm sure they would be able to create excellent software.

 

Earlier this year when I did an upgrade to my eTrex it installed the icons for a geocache and a found geocache. What I'd like to see is an icon for benchmarks.

 

Digital_Cowboy

[+JDandDD]

My garmin also has a geocache mode. It uses geocache icons, with a found or not found mode.

 

But I understand what you saying. I often wonder that myself. If garmin were to come out with a program such as gsak, i'd be sure to use it. Not to knock gsak in anyway, but with garmins resources i'm sure they would be able to create excellent software.

 

Earlier this year when I did an upgrade to my eTrex it installed the icons for a geocache and a found geocache. What I'd like to see is an icon for benchmarks.

 

Digital_Cowboy

Garmin Mapsource lets you create up to 63 custom icons of your own. Just create the icon in Paint or other paint program and use a pinkish background with RBG colors of 255,0,255 and save it in Mapsource's Custom Waypoint Symbols directory with a number from 001 to 063 as the name. Save it .bmp format 16X16 up to 32X32 format. I think 32bit colour is the highest format that can be used. The pink background makes the background transparent on the maps.

 

JD

[+olbluesguy]

If they are working with software for only bikers and runners, I think it's a big mistake.

They may have more numbers as a whole, but what % of them them us a GPSR?

As for Geocachers the number is 100%

[+gpsblake]

handheld GPS units make up only a small portion of GPS sales. Less than 10 percent.

 

All GPS makers are focused on the much more profitable car based GPS units with handheld units being a very distant second. It used to be that handheld units had a lot more of the market. It's not the case today. TomTom doesn't even bother putting out a handheld GPS unit. That's the business model and focus of all GPS companies.

 

In fact, Garmin did make several PDA's with GPS capability but scaled them back to just one model because of slow sales.

[+BlueDeuce]

handheld GPS units make up only a small portion of GPS sales. Less than 10 percent.

 

All GPS makers are focused on the much more profitable car based GPS units with handheld units being a very distant second. It used to be that handheld units had a lot more of the market. It's not the case today. TomTom doesn't even bother putting out a handheld GPS unit. That's the business model and focus of all GPS companies.

 

In fact, Garmin did make several PDA's with GPS capability but scaled them back to just one model because of slow sales.

 

Yep, I have no doubt that most cars will eventually include a gps system.

 

But I still wonder what group will be the most 'user intensive'. Maybe it's truckers.

[Clan Riffster]

In fact, Garmin did make several PDA's with GPS capability but scaled them back to just one model because of slow sales.

I thought they scaled them back because they really stink. I own a Garmin Ique 3600, and it is the biggest piece of carp I've ever bought. Garmin decided to add GPS capabilities to a PDA, which made both useless. Had they added minimum PDA functions to a GPSr, they would've had something marketable.

[The_Brownies]

Yes the companies take us seriously. Why else would Garmin and Magellan add Geocache Menus to their GPSr's ? Plus World Wide caching has really bumped their sales. Personally I'm a Magellan Platnium Gold user, and from what I have seen with their latest models, they only continue to get better. Just look at the ability to use upto a 2 gig SD Memory card for maps. Way cool in my book.

[AusiKifaru]

I've just purchased a Magellan eXplorist XL with the intent to navigate some of Australia's more remote areas. I came across Geocaching by accident while reading the manual (it directs you to www.geocaching.com).

 

It sounded fun and I've found 6 caches in the last 4 days just while walking the dog. I was happy to enter coordinates manually, but found out installing the software was a bonus. The software bundled with the GPSr, called Geocache Manager couldn't be more simple.

 

While on www.geocaching.com, you download the .loc files (found in the individual cache info pages) to your PC, then load them in the Geocache manager. Then with your GPSr connected to the PC, just press the Send To GPS button. It's instant!

 

The other option is, while in the list mode (where it sorts caches in order of distance from your location) click any or all of the boxes on the right of the page, adjacent to the caches you want, then click the Download Waypoints button at the bottom of the page to create a .loc file with ALL the ones you selected.

 

I downloaded all 130 waypoints that were in a 15 mile radius in less than 3 minutes (most of that was clicking the boxes), from website to GPSr. Could it be any easier?

 

YES, they ARE listening.

 

Note: If you download the .loc files one at a time, you can add them all to the same file. In Geocache Manager, once you've loaded one file and want to add another, go to File, Open. On the popup, click "Append to existing list" and open the next .loc file. Without click Append, it just opens the new file on it's own. This is explained in the downloadable .pdf manual here http://www.magellangps.com/assets/manuals/...t_XL_en-gbr.pdf

 

Another note, as stated in the beginning, mentioning www.gc.com in the manual is another hint they're listening

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I've just purchased a Magellan eXplorist XL with the intent to navigate some of Australia's more remote areas. I came across Geocaching by accident while reading the manual (it directs you to www.geocaching.com).

 

If you like the .loc files, buy yourself a Premium Membership ($30/year) at geocaching.com and start getting Pocket Queries!

 

Yes, I think they are listening intently! Whether they address us any more directly than they have is a function of defining the market - and I don't think ANYONE knows how many geocachers there are nor the demographics of what devices we buy or how often we upgrade.

 

Without a firm understanding of the market that such demographics bring I doubt you'll see major investments custom to our needs.

 

Garmin tried it with the Ique 3600, a great idea poorly executed the Palm/GPS had to have cost them a bundle. They had to withdraw all claims that it was suitable for geocaching. I kept mine two weeks and took it back!

 

I don't think you'll see many such efforts made until they have a firm grasp of our market potential.

 

Ed

[+The SuzyQs]

Try this...

 

http://www.garmin.com/products/iQue3000/

 

GPS and PDA all in one...