Andy Sjostrom
03-20-2002, 09:55 AM
<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?bw.031802/220772501">http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?bw.031802/220772501</a><br /><br />The company <a href="http://www.sychip.com/">SyChip</a> likes it small. They just presented the smallest GPS solution reference design on the market, conforming to the CF Type 1 specification. The CF card even has a back up battery "to maintain power to the SRAM and Real Time Clock for periods when primary power to the terminal may be turned off thus ensuring fast acquisition time once the unit is turned back on". Hopefully we will see their technology being made available to the general public soon.<br /><br />"It transforms any Pocket PC into a portable navigation device, which can be used in a variety of consumer and enterprise applications. Together with 3rd party mapping software, this solution provides accurate positioning data for a wide variety of applications including: fleet tracking, in-car navigation and mobile computing."<br /><br />Location based services is a tune sung by most mobile network operators today. But I believe mobile network operators won't have the exclusive ability to deliver location based services. As phones get smarter, and PDAs get more phone like, we will see GPS products like this being more widely used. GPS products are definately more cost efficient and accurate than any network services mobile network operator ever can deliver!<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/smallgps.jpg" />