Schreiner told GPS Business News at the Navigation & Location USA conference in San Jose that US consumers typically view personal navigation devices as the ideal for mobile navigation, even if they currently make wide use of mobile phone apps.
Strategy Analytics found that 22% of mobile app owners use them every day. However, an equal number of users with navigation on their smartphones have never used it. By far the most popular use of mobile nav apps is the standard use for maps and routing. Other apps such as traffic reports or speed camera warnings are often unused.
Users report the main drawbacks of using a phone are the small screen size, the need for a special dock to hold the instrument while driving, and difficulty in running a nav app while simultaneously trying hold a phone conversation.
This pattern is repeated in Western Europe.
