GPS (global positioning system) has become the latest buzzword in the cellphone world. Where there were barely any phones with this feature in the market last year, this year has seen a number of high-end devices sport GPS. And leading the pack is (as usual) Nokia. The world's leading phone manufacturer had as many as four GPS-enabled devices in the Indian market (the N95, the N95 8GB, the N82 and the E90) and has now thrown in a fifth – the 6110 Navigator. However, unlike the others, in which GPS was just one of many features, it very much occupies centre-stage in the Navigator.

The performance and price advantage!
Without going into the technical specifications of the device, the fact is that the Navigator is perhaps the first high-profile phone in the country that is attempting to carve a niche for itself based on its navigation feature. Yes, it does have 2-megapixel camera. Yes, it is also a smartphone as it runs Symbian Series 60 (3rd edition). And yes, it also has the usual software that one gets to see in Nokia's high-end phones. But what marks it out are its superb GPS capabilities. I got to use the phone for about an hour and the quality of its maps, voice instructions and most importantly, the ability to recalculate routes when one took a wrong turn or encountered an unexpected obstacle (a traffic delay, repair work, etc.) was extremely impressive and much better than anything I had seen from the BlackBerry, HTC or Asus GPS devices in the country. One can search for landmarks, hotels, petrol pumps and the like and get results very quickly indeed.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Navigator and other GPS phones is the quality of the navigation software. The likes of Asus and BlackBerry offer only Google Maps (at least in India), which can show the location of the user on a map but does not support routing in India. In fact, Google Maps so far do not even support turn-by-turn voice instructions, delivering them in text in the US.

That said one area in which Google Maps does score over others is the fact that it can plot your location using live satellite images and not just maps. Also in select cities (mostly in the US and Europe), it can even make route suggestions based on live traffic information – so if a particular road on your normal route is jammed, Google Maps will actually tell you so and suggest an alternative route! However, as these features are not available for Indian cities, talk of them is superfluous. In fact, the only real non-Nokia competitor to the Navigator seems to be HTC’s Artemis (P 3300) which is a totally touchscreen device and also comes preloaded with maps of major Indian cities (as does the Navigator). It offers a larger screen but its voice quality is not on the same level as that of the Navigator.

There is also the little matter of price – with its approximately Rs 20,500 price tag (some dealers are offering it at Rs 19,500 already), the Navigator is the cheapest GPS phone in the Indian market (the HTC P 3300 costs about Rs 21,000). And in a market that is as price-sensitive as the Indian one that factor alone might make the Navigator a winner in the GPS phone segment.

No killer app yet
Mind you, the GPS phone market is not yet a significant one in India. Yes, the E90 has done well but that has been more because of its laptop-like functionality, rather than integrated GPS. In fact, that is perhaps why GPS has so far been seen only in smartphones, rather than mainstream multimedia ones, and why the likes of Motorola and Sony Ericsson do not seem to be too keen to get a bite of the GPS pie in India. A reason for the relative lack of popularity of GPS seems to be the fact that there is no “killer app” associated with it yet – one can only use the technology to map one’s way and even the maps available are limited – you might not always find what you are looking for. Similarly, there is no option yet to not only search for a hotel but also book a room directly from the map, or find a bookstore and order a book from it. Until something like that happens, very few people are likely to purchase a phone purely for GPS. Those who do, however, are likely to love the 6110 Navigator!