7 years in technology - a retrospective on the rise of mobile mapping

It was only 7 years ago I was sat outside the Wasdale Head, trying to justify to the Editor of a popular website that the future of mapping and navigation was about to make a monumental shift. Armed with an HP iPaq 5550 and an early version of Memory Map I put my case, demonstrating how connected to another box of tricks it would show my position in real time on a proper OS map - it was little short of alchemy.

Wasdale

Back then digital mapping was something of a novelty, with the emphasis on home made solutions involving shareware applications and self scanned and calibrated maps before Memory Map appeared. Hardware was far from integrated with at minimum a seperate handheld PC and a Bluetooth GPS receiver, but at times a bag full of wires was needed to connect devices. Receivers would need a good half hour before you set off to work out where you were, and you could forget about them if your route involved passing underneath trees or through any form of gorge or canyon. In short it was a great toy for planning routes in the pub, but you wouldn't consider heading into the hills without a map and compass in reserve.

Early version of Memory Map highlighting Wainwrights

Outdoor activities, whether walking, climbing or mountaineering are beasts of tradition and can be somewhat intransigent to say the least - with set ways that have worked for generations so "why change now" being a lifestyle mantra. Yes equipment would change with technology, but there are certain ways of doing things that are set in stone - you MUST have good ankle support on boots for example, and navigation was one one of those petrified rules. "God created the Map, then he created the Compass, there shall be no other method of navigation but these" was followed with almost religious fervour offering promises of impending doom if electronics were allowed into the vaulted domain of paper and magnetic needles. Back in 2003, these prophets of doom would have had a case - even ignoring the arguments of battery failure. Although I was carrying my iPaq and GPS into the hills even this technophile wasn't prepared to rely on something that could fail thanks to loss of signal.

Roll forwards to 2010 and digital mapping has become mainstream. Memory Map have been followed by Anquet, Quo Pro and Tracklogs (amongst others) on the computer screen and a new industry is emerging that's putting hi quality OS mapping on your mobile phone. The first years after that Wasdale conversation saw the handheld PC continue its rise, with GPS getting smaller and more powerful and moving from an external device to an integrated component. The internet started to wake up to the possibilities of locality orientated applications and satnav emerged which demanded accuracy and consistency from devices. Dedicated GPS receivers also started making their way across from a marine market to onshore uses, led by Magellan and Garmin with their trans-Atlantic muscle.

Dedicated GPS receivers commonly featured relatively limited quality mapping

Unfortunately the GPS manufacturers managed to miss the boat, appearing with limited and expensive mapping just as the digital mapping software producers were waking up to a mobile market. Whilst dedicated GPS receivers from the big names featured monochrome (though latterly colour) screens and basic topographic maps the likes of memory map and Anquet had full Ordnance Survey applications that just needing porting to a mobile version. Despite their limitations as a phone format Microsoft's series of Mobile Operating Systems provided an easy platform for the migration of digital mapping to mobile devices, and others took note. PPC versions of the major applications soon emerged, coinciding with a shrinking in size of mobile phones and a new option was taking shape.

It may be controversial but I strongly suspect that the dedicated handheld outdoor GPS will be dead within a decade at most, replaced by mobile phones completely - and if it weren't for the impressive (and totally designed from scratch) Satmap Active 10 it would probably be dead already. Everybody carries a mobile phone these days, and why carry two devices where one will do? A GPS will tell you where you are, no more no less, but a mobile will let you do that whilst booking your campsite and takeaway meal, taking a photo of it and calling the emergency services when you get yourself into trouble. People are also familiar with mobiles in the outdoors, realising instinctively that they don't get on well with rain and you need to keep an eye on your battery levels, so taking the basic precautions need to keep them safe.

Satmap's impressive Active10 Plus

It's 2010 now, and though I lost the argument outside the Wasdale Head I think I won the war. Now my mobile phone is an essential item of my outdoor kit, almost so automatic it doesn't even need to appear on my kit list for checking. The drive to the hills starts with a satnav app, taking me safely to a campsite booked on the same device. Once there I have my OS maps on-tap with ViewRanger, and a built in digital camera (GPS linked for location recording) for photographs. Another app will give me up to date weather forecasts, and God forbid I venture North of Hadrian's Wall in Summer it'll keep me warned of the fearsome Scottish Midge. Feeling a little more adventurous? No problems, meeting at a wild camp's a doddle with your companions' positions displayed on -screen in real time - now you can't do that with a map and compass! As if that's not enough functions for a single device I can switch from map to guidebook, with Cicerone now producing their range of guides in ebook format, just to double check that scrambling alternative.


ViewRanger on an iPad - the future?