I've waffled on a bit recently about Nokia, Garmin, Microsoft and Google all battling it out between them for a share in the lucrative location-based services market. For those who've not read my earlier posts on location-based services, they're seen as advertising nirvana - ads that don't just advertise a product, but actually advertise a product that's within a 5 minute radius of you and your wallet!

Now a new company has stepped into the ring with another business model - super-cheap GPS devices that are subsidized by advertising in the same way that many Web sites (such as this one) are. The company is called adNav, and their new GPS device Boomerang gives you a plethora of location-based services, including location-based ads.

adNav seem to be following the mobile phone model, whereby expensive gadgets that would normally cost hundreds of pounds are subsidized in some other way to ensure their wide distribution. In the case of mobile phones, of course, it's the network operators who subsidize them, and who get the money back from the monthly contract charges.

With adNav, though, there is, of course, no network, so they get their money back from a host of location-based services. You can, for example, get live flight information, weather info, restaurant guides and city guides, all of which will be presented alongside ads for shops and services that are just minutes away from your current location.

The adNav Boomerang isn't just a GPS device, though. It also comes with Wi-Fi and a cellular connection, enabling you to browse the Web wherever you are. As such, it's almost a mobile phone - in fact, it's so much like a mobile phone (apart from the fact you can't actually make phone calls), I can't help but think it'll very soon be blown out of the water by GPS-enabled mobile phones that will be everywhere from next year.

Either way, whether it's ad-supported GPS devices or operator-supported GPS phones, super cheap GPS is on its way, which is certainly great news for the consumer.

[Source: Engadget]