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Paper map sales are booming

wsj.com

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Re: Paper map sales are booming

#311

Post by Fatnino »

GeekyBear wrote: post #290
efreak wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$400 isn't low-end. The Samsung phone I got from T-Mobile for a one-time payment of $40 after taxes (for trading in a flip phone) is a low end phone. I've been using it for over a year, and I expect to continue using it for at least another year, probably two. At that point, I might just switch to a flip phone, since I spend my money on nice large tablets instead of oversized phones. Hopefully there'll be a decently…

> $400 isn't low-end. The Samsung phone I got from T-Mobile for a one-time payment of $40 Are we pretending that T-Mobile won't cut you a deal on an iPhone SE?

I'm using a Motorola phone that I bought outright new for 200 bucks. Still works 3 years later, but has recently started showing its age, especially in the battery department.

I'll be looking for a new phone soon. 350 and under is what I'm aiming for. 400 is extreme stretch and the 400 dollar phone would have to blow me away to get me to consider it.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#312

Post by cafard »

dljsjr wrote: post #49

Anybody remember Triptiks from AAA? You'd go to a AAA office or call them on the phone, tell them where you were going, and in return you'd get a printed spiral top-bound pad with your trip broken down in to multiple legs, the roads/routes pre-highlighted, gas stops and prices estimated in, a list of sites for stopping off at, etc. All human curated and human annotated (the roads on your route were literally gone ove…

Yes, though I don't remember the highlighting.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#313

Post by larrik »

stephen_g wrote: post #278
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way to see a street name on Apple Maps without zooming in entirely. And sometimes even then, I'll see something like Route 99 instead the name by which everyone refers to the road: "Broadway".

This annoys me too. I've submitted map feedback (holding and tapping 'Report a problem' on the map) before but who knows if that could make much of a difference. I assumed the route numbers are more of an American thing (although your comment seems to imply perhaps not)? We have them here but nobody I know here in Australia uses them or knows them, apart from major motorways. Maybe the other routes are used by trucke…

> I assumed the route numbers are more of an American thing (although your comment seems to imply perhaps not)?

In my area (Connecticut), it depends. Some streets are known by their route numbers, vs some streets have route numbers and most people aren't aware of them at all. It's more common to refer by route number if it's a busy main road that changes name from town to town that it passes through.

Then there's upstate New York, with plenty of streets that are only route numbers, despite being otherwise residential normal roads.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#314

Post by lanstin »

lmm wrote: post #251
JCM9 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I remember going into the AAA office with my dad before family vacations to pick them up. They gave you a whole pre-trip briefing too on current construction, tips and any issues you might encounter. While apps like Waze do a great job of getting you from A-Z they completely lack the contextual information about where you’re going, things to see along the way and other details. One really had to pay a lot more a…

It's easier than ever to go off on an adventure if you want to. Any turn you like, you can take, you don't have to worry about getting lost. Anywhere you think looks like a nice detour, you can add it in and see immediately how much time it's going to add. Most people don't bother, but I don't think that's the technology's fault. The technology absolutely supports it.

True but it also depends on who is in the car with you. I have to turn aside randomly if I have taken a route too many times, whether by car, foot, or bicycle. Trains and buses I am more happy to just do the routine.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#315

Post by ChuckMcM »

freedomben wrote: post #308
ChuckMcM wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could argue that "most" people[1] have iPhones (at least in the US). And yes it is only 22% world wide. But putting aside the currently available "seats" for a moment, at the point where is it clearly the better product then two things start happening 1) People start buying Apple hardware because it has a better map experience. 2) Apple can produce the iMap device, likely in cooperation with their maps partner To…

While 55% is technically "most", there are hundreds of millions of people in that minority block. Definitely not a number to just dismiss from a function as important as mapping. As a member of that minority, I'm very grateful for non-hardware-locked mapping apps.

I 100% agree. What I was trying to communicate was that maps is a "feature" of a bigger platform "phone" and can be a discriminator for consumers on purchase. For example a consumer who uses their phone mostly for its maps and driving directions may choose a phone based on their best "maps" experience.

The reference article was discussing a resurgence in "paper" maps, which have three advantages over "electronic" maps that I am aware of; they work when you are "offline", they have specific details of interest, and they "look good."

My observation was that Apple appears to be investing in a better "map" experience on their phones. This resurgence might influence that investment.

Dismissing that observation based on market share is probably unwise. Why? Because market share is a function of serving customer requirements better than the competition. Market share is a reflection of meeting requirements, and in the absence of external forces will result in the brands with doing the best job of meeting requirements ahead of their competitors.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#316

Post by kulahan »

bobwaycott wrote: post #127
kulahan wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Travel is such an personal thing - it's people in an environment at least somewhat foreign to them. Trusting someone to plan it is a pretty intimate thing, and companies don't do intimate things very well anymore. Too many people, too few companies. I'd pay good money for more personal experiences from companies, especially when it comes to something like this, but it's not easy. The wife and I were looking for a hon…

Just curious here—what sort of things were on your list that you couldn’t find? If there were better templates, what kind of trips would you expect to be able to plan?

I'm referring to unknown unknowns here. I'm going to a completely foreign area, and I want to pay someone money instead of doing hours of research myself. It's just a huge pain in the ass made way harder by the fact that I don't know anything about the place, and the places I visited were all very rigid. Maybe the type of experience I'm looking for is not something I can afford, and that's why I haven't come across it?

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#317

Post by nicbou »

adamwong246 wrote: post #307
nicbou wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to read about your approach. This is something I am considering too, but screens are a good medium for a lot of what I do.

Well, me too. Hard to write software with pen and paper. But it resolves to "use tech for work and only work". I go online to get my job done but it's all work, no pleasure. I've ridden my phone of any app which can eat my attention. It goes without saying that social media apps got trashed but also news apps, even the default google news app. My phone is more like an old-school Nokia than a modern magic rectangle an…

This is similar to something I wrote about recently: https://nicolasbouliane.com/blog/silence

My goals were different, but my approach was very similar. However I did not replace screens with analogue equivalents.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#318

Post by lmm »

GeekyBear wrote: post #299
datpiff wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Given that Apple just issued another security update for the decade old iPhone 5s, your ability to hand down an iPhone is greatly extended, especially compared to the support policy you get with a bottom of the barrel Android device. I think this is a fair point in favour of Apple, but I would be surprised if many people who are weighing up hand-me-downs vs cheapest models are concerned with security updates

Build quality, years of OS updates and security patch longevity are absolutely reasons why iPhones hold their value much longer than a bottom of the barrel Android device does. > based on handsets with an initial buyback price of $700 or higher, Android phones lose value twice as fast as iOS models over the first two years of ownership. https://www.phonearena.com/news/android-phones-lose-more-val... Also, the cheaper…

Low trade-in value is a reason a lot of those devices end up as hand-me-downs; there's no liquid market so they're notionally worthless, but they still work so people are likely to pass them on rather than trade them in. (Indeed one could argue that Apple pays inflated trade-in values to get their old models out of circulation and sustain their premium positioning)

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#319

Post by criley2 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #315
freedomben wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While 55% is technically "most", there are hundreds of millions of people in that minority block. Definitely not a number to just dismiss from a function as important as mapping. As a member of that minority, I'm very grateful for non-hardware-locked mapping apps.

I 100% agree. What I was trying to communicate was that maps is a "feature" of a bigger platform "phone" and can be a discriminator for consumers on purchase. For example a consumer who uses their phone mostly for its maps and driving directions may choose a phone based on their best "maps" experience. The reference article was discussing a resurgence in "paper" maps, which have three advantages over "electronic" map…

If marketshare is a reflection of meeting customer requirements, then the fact that Google Maps is indisputably #1 and what 10X larger than Apple Maps means that consumers have decided which solution meets their needs the best, right?

For the record, the best data available suggests that only ~50% of iOS users choose the pre-installed built-in Maps versus explicitly downloading the Google Maps app.

One wonders what that number would look like without anti-competitive monopolistic bundling, too. From that perspective, it seems that the "majority of iOS users" would choose Google over Apple Maps, but Apple's anti-competitive behavior has kept it at around 50/50 on their own platform.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#320

Post by GeekyBear »

lmm wrote: post #318
GeekyBear wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Build quality, years of OS updates and security patch longevity are absolutely reasons why iPhones hold their value much longer than a bottom of the barrel Android device does. > based on handsets with an initial buyback price of $700 or higher, Android phones lose value twice as fast as iOS models over the first two years of ownership. https://www.phonearena.com/news/android-phones-lose-more-val... Also, the cheaper…

Low trade-in value is a reason a lot of those devices end up as hand-me-downs; there's no liquid market so they're notionally worthless, but they still work so people are likely to pass them on rather than trade them in. (Indeed one could argue that Apple pays inflated trade-in values to get their old models out of circulation and sustain their premium positioning)

One could argue that Android vendors intentionally refuse to support low end Android devices after the sale to force users to buy another device every year.
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