

How Garmin Failed to See the iPhone Threat - SlipperySlope
http://allthingsd.com/20120612/how-garmin-failed-to-see-the-iphone-threat/

======
Bill_Dimm
My personal experience with Garmin (hopefully not too off-topic): I purchased
a Garmin hiking GPS. Hiking GPSs, unlike the ones you get for your car, often
don't come with maps. So, I purchased Garmin's U.S. Topo 2008 map, which
covers the whole country with modest resolution. They also sell more detailed
regional maps at a higher price. I found that Lake Nockamixon, one of the
biggest lakes in Pennsylvania (1450 acres), was missing from the map. Marsh
Creek (535 acres) was also missing. I reported this problem to Garmin,
expecting them to apologize and vow to fix it in the next release. Instead,
they claimed that the map I purchased didn't have enough "detail" to display
those lakes and tried to get me to purchase the more expensive regional maps
(which they confirmed did have the lakes). Both of those lakes were man-made
lakes constructed in the 70's by damming up small creeks. The Topo 2008 map
showed the creeks that were there 40 years earlier, rather than the lakes that
existed in 2008. I pointed that out, but they continued to insist that it was
due to a lack of "detail" rather than outdated data. I asked how the map could
have enough detail to display the tiny little creeks from 40 years ago, but
not enough detail to display huge lakes. I asked how the map could have enough
detail to display 20-acre lakes but not enough detail to display lakes that
were over 50 times larger. They had no answer for those questions. I asked to
have it escalated to a manager, and I was told that the manager was in
agreement -- it's just a lack of detail. No matter how hard I tried, I could
not get them to care about the inaccuracies in their maps.

This article, with Garmin's CEO ignoring warnings of the threat from smart
phones, reminds me of that experience. Heads buried in the sand, not wanting
to listen to anyone.

------
SlipperySlope
"Fast forward to mid-2012 and yesterday’s demonstration of new mapping and
navigation capabilities on Apple’s iOS 6. Garmin isn’t a nonparticipant in the
smartphone ecosystem: It builds many iPhone and Android apps for navigation,
boating, aviation and outdoor sports. And, indeed, half of Garmin’s business
is in those nonautomotive areas. But it’s about to get killed in the half that
everyone pays attention to: Automotive navigation. "

Convergence works when there is a dominant physical device that is good enough
to supplant purpose-built specialized devices.

~~~
samstave
True, but in this day and age - if you are running a tech company and you are
not paranoid as hell about Apple/Google/Facebook farking you over - then
you're unfit to run a tech company.

Now more than ever should everyone be worried about the famous question: "So
whats to stop [Apple/Google/Facebook] from doing this?"

You need to take the OMGPOP route: build something very well and very
successful that the Zyngas cant just steal it - they HAVE to buy you.

(Lets just hope the post acquisition health of the acquiring company is far
better than Zynga's :)

