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Paper map sales are booming

wsj.com

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Re: Paper map sales are booming

#321

Post by warner25 »

kortilla wrote: post #196
warner25 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love maps, and I'll admit that my wife and I have a bunch of map art hanging on our walls, one of each city or state where we've lived, but they're not like actual maps that you could fold up and take on a road trip. I hadn't thought of hanging up that sort of map. I'll also admit that I haven't bought a paper map to put in the glove box of my car in over a decade. I have printed Google Maps before a trip, though.…

Where do you buy nice ones for the wall? I’ve wanted to do this but end up stumbling across random bespoke ones.

We've bought almost all of them through Etsy, and they are indeed "random bespoke" products. Some sellers are military spouses so they design prints of the places where we've lived (i.e. around Army bases, which wouldn't interest most other people). Last week we were looking at this one, and the seller appears to specialize in artistic maps: https://www.etsy.com/listing/346969594/fort-rucker-map-print...

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#322

Post by ChuckMcM »

criley2 wrote: post #319
ChuckMcM wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

Yes and no. "Yes" at this moment in time, Google Maps is the choice of most people. "No" in that market share at one point is not a predictor of market share at a future point. If it were, we would all be using Blackberry phones right?

I would agree 100% that for the last 10 years, Google Maps has been "the best choice" for an online map. I think it would be ill advised if they relied on their historical advantage and simply "assumed" it would always be "the best choice." Their competitors are evolving their maps offerings and if Google doesn't pay attention they will find themselves suddenly playing catch up.

My observation is that Google is very distracted at the moment but I don't know how that affects the maps team (were any of them laid off?). Apple seems to be investing here and the improvements in their product reflect that investment.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#323

Post by lmm »

GeekyBear wrote: post #320
lmm wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One could, but the competitiveness of low-end Android makes that pretty implausible; people buying a cheap no-name Android who replace it with another cheap no-name Android are unlikely to get that from the same company.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#324

Post by GeekyBear »

lmm wrote: post #323
GeekyBear wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One could, but the competitiveness of low-end Android makes that pretty implausible; people buying a cheap no-name Android who replace it with another cheap no-name Android are unlikely to get that from the same company.

It's not implausible at all. It's an intentional choice to refuse to provide support for low end devices, seen across the board.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#325

Post by nomel »

bearmode wrote: post #304
nomel wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and far easier to use than anything digital. Paper maps are great for knowing where to go, but a little less great for knowing where you are. Off/deep trail hikers will have a stand-alone GPS, because climbing trees/hills to get your bearings ends up being a serious risk, with just a compass: https://gripped.com/gripped-outdoors/how-100-hikers-got-lost...

Entirely depends on the environment you're hiking in tbh.

True. Maps only work if there’s uniquely, unambiguously, identifiable terrain, that’s well understood from looking at the, necessarily, topographical map.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#326

Post by lmm »

GeekyBear wrote: post #324
lmm wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could, but the competitiveness of low-end Android makes that pretty implausible; people buying a cheap no-name Android who replace it with another cheap no-name Android are unlikely to get that from the same company.

It's not implausible at all. It's an intentional choice to refuse to provide support for low end devices, seen across the board.

It's implausible that it would be for market control purposes, because no one player controls that market and competition is intense (unlike Apple's situation). If no-one's offering support in the low end it's because doing so is uneconomic in itself, not to create an effect in another part of the ecosystem.
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