[gamble]

And yet, standalone GPS systems are still absurdly expensive. I was looking at a handheld system with topological map support for hiking this summer, and the Garmin options basically start at $250 - and don't even include the maps, which are $100 on their own.

Motorcycle GPS? $700 please.

None of Garmin's standalone GPS products are remotely as capable as a free-on-contract Android smartphone, but they cost as much as an unsubsidized high-end handset. And you have to keep paying every year for updated maps.

[Ogre]

I used this topographic map app for iOS while hiking the Appalachain Trail last year: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/topo-maps/id306014271?mt=8

It's currently $7.99, and I felt like it was worth every penny. That $8 gets you unlimited downloads of USGS map squares, which are saved for offline use. Although the support for GPX "routes" is a little lacking, the support for "waypoints" is fine. My use case was mostly putting all of the AT shelters in as waypoints so I could answer the question "Oh my god how much farther do I have to go today?" when I took breaks. But it works very well for actual navigation too.

Also, the developer responded within a few hours when I was having trouble downloading a particular map square. It turned out to have more to do with my crappy Edge connection at the time, but still, he was quick to help, always a plus.

The big drawback to not having a dedicated device is battery life. I had to ration out use of my phone pretty strictly at times. Going 4 or more days between chargings doesn't actually let you do very much with it. If you only care about day hikes and overnights, it's not such a big deal, just remember to turn it off when not in use!

[rogerbinns]

Note that motorbike GPS are ruggedized and waterproof - something that doesn't apply to the regular ones. They also have to work when being used with gloves not fingers, and are a smaller market. An Android phone isn't particularly comparable.

They do include lifetime maps with many car models these days (look for LMT after the model number for lifetime maps and traffic).

For some reason Garmin do have a perverse business model for the handheld units. I think they are trying to do the whole razor (gps) and blades (maps) model, but instead consumers are routing around this by just not buying their products. What Garmin should be doing is encouraging their customers to be doing as much mapping as possible rather than pricing them out of it.

[_mayo]

It may be that they feel they can charge more due to offline capabilities of dedicated GPS devices.

[gamble]

Could be. It's definitely possible to do everything offline with a smartphone, but it isn't easy yet. I ended up buying a couple of topo map apps on my iPhone, and they did everything I needed.