GPS World, November 2018

6 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM NOVEMBER 2018 WWW GPSWORLD COM EDITORIAL Editor in Chief Group Publisher Alan Cameron editor@ gpsworld com 541 984 5312 Editorial Director Marty Whitford mwhitford@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3766 Managing Editor Tracy Cozzens tcozzens@ northcoastmedia net 541 255 3334 Digital Media Manager Joelle Harms jharms@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3780 Digital Editor Allison Barwacz abarwacz@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3796 Art Director Charles Park CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Innovation Richard Langley lang@ unb ca Defense PNT Michael Jones mjones@ gpsworld com European GNSS Tim Reynolds treynolds@ gpsworld com Professional OEM UAV Tony Murfin GeoIntelligence William Tewelow wtewelow@ gpsworld com Survey Tim Burch and Dave Zilkoski tburch@ gpsworld com and dzilkoski@ gpsworld com BUSINESS ACCOUNT MANAGER Mike Joyce mjoyce@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3723 ACCOUNT MANAGER Ryan Gerard rgerard@ northcoastmedia net 216 363 7921 DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT Bethany Chambers bchambers@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3771 SR MARKETING EVENT MANAGER Michelle Mitchell mmitchell@ northcoastmedia net 216 363 7922 MARKETING EVENT MANAGER Angela Gibian agibian@ northcoastmedia net 216 363 7936 MARKETING SALES MANAGER BUYERS GUIDE Chloe Scoular cscoular@ northcoastmedia net 216 363 7929 PUBLISHING SERVICES Manager Production Services Chris Anderson canderson@ northcoastmedia net 216 978 5341 Senior Audience Development Manager Antoinette Sanchez Perkins asanchez perkins@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3750 Reprints Permissions Brett Petillo bpetillo@ wrightsmedia com 877 652 5295 Circulation Subscriber Services gpsworld@ omeda com USA 847 513 6030 NORTH COAST MEDIA LLC 1360 East 9th St Suite 1070 Cleveland OH 44114 USA President CEO Kevin Stoltman kstoltman@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3740 Vice President of Finance Operations Steve Galperin sgalperin@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3705 Editorial Director Marty Whitford mwhitford@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3766 VP Graphic Design Production Pete Seltzer pseltzer@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3737 Published monthly OUT IN FRONT MANUSCRIPTS GPS World welcomes unsolicited articles but cannot be held responsible for their safekeeping or return Send to 1360 East 9th St Suite 1070 IMG Center Cleveland OH 44114 USA Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy but publishers cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of information supplied herein or for any opinion expressed REPRINTS Reprints of all articles are available 500 minimum Contact 877 652 5295 Nick Iademarco Wrights Media 2407 Timberloch Place The Woodlands TX 77380 SUBSCRIBER SERVICES To subscribe change your address and all other services e mail gpsworld@ omeda com or call 847 513 6030 LIST RENTAL Contact 800 529 9020 Brahm Schenkman bschenkman@ inforefinery com The Information Refinery Inc PERMISSIONS Contact 877 652 5295 Nick Iademarco Wrights Media 2407 Timberloch Place The Woodlands TX 77380 INTERNATIONAL LICENSING E mail gpsworld@ gpsworld com ACCOUNTING OFFICE AND OFFICE OF PUBLICATION 1360 East 9th St Suite 1070 IMG Center Cleveland OH 44114 USA GPS WORLD does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the advertisements contained in the publication and cannot take any responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content Farewell to the Golden Age of GPS BY Alan Cameron EDITOR IN CHIEF O ne remark in particular caught my eye as I read the press release précis of the European GNSS Agencys 2018 GNSS User Technology Report In point Today only around 30 of receivers use GPS only What methought Incredulously I downloaded the 92 page document so easily done at ww gsa europa eu and scrutinized it closely Surely the GPSonly installed base out there is wider vaster and deeper its certainly older than could have been overtaken already by the wave of multi constellation devices Yes they are clearly the future But is the past already gone That golden age when GPS was all that anyone lived positioned and navigated by vanished into the mist Only earlier this very year was I upgraded from an iPhone 3 to an 8 with Galileo onboard for the first time Hip but by the skin of my teeth I breathed In the fine print on page 20 of the report lay clarification for my consternation For the analysis each device is weighted equally regardless of whether it is a chipset or receiver and no matter what its sales volume is The results should therefore be interpreted as the split of constellation support in manufacturers offerings rather than what is in use by end users Of the roughly 500 chipsets and modules tallied by the GSA 30 of those models are GPS only Thats a number of quite a different color See the chart for fuller information Better minds than this can take a stab at how many devices in the hands Graphic European GNSS Agency end users on this day are still GPS only Id put it above 50 The writings on the wall for the GPS only artifact but a good many of those veterans are still out there working hard in the marketplace Their reign as the majority may be limited especially with the rising global tide of multi constellation smartphones but lets honor them one last time before consigning them to the museum The GSAs Report by the way is a remarkably good and valuable read No one can know it all but this slim volume packs a remarkable and essential density of key facts trends issues markets and more