GPS for bikes. Why is it so hideously expensive?

dragonontheedge

Garmin Edge 800 £339.99 (Evans with discounted price)

Garmin Nuvi 30 in car sat nav with mapping for UK, ROI and Western Europe £79.99 (Halfords with discounted price)

Surely the 800 with training tools, workout data, a mount (oh hang on the Nuvi 30 will have one also) and a heart rate monitor (Garmin Premium Heart Rate Transmitter £44.99) does not warrant a price premium of £260.

What am I missing ?

dawebbo

dragonontheedge wrote:

What am I missing ?

A basic understanding of business?

danowat

The fact that bike GPS's can run for 12+hrs on batteries, and car one's can't?

tiredofwhiners

The fact that the GPS chips in a Garmin are very low power, volume and weight for a given sensitivity and car ones are not?

drlodge

Garmin 800 has different, smaller, form factor, smaller sales therefore less demand, is water proof (resistant anyway) and resistant to vibrations from cycling.

Its not about how much it costs to make, its about how much the public are prepared to pay for it.

MacAndCheese

Its mostly the fact they need decent, reliable rechargeable batteries, that's why decent lights are so expensive too.

keef66

Technological differences aside, they charge as much as they can get away with. Until recently Garmin had a virtual monopoly in the bike GPS market, whereas competition is strong in the car satnav segment. Be interesting to see if the introduction of devices from Holux and Bryton makes a difference.

nmcgann

I just use a standard etrex legend gps and keep my nav non bike specific. Much cheaper and runs on aa batts. Not as neat or sexy though, but works for me.

oldwelshman

so use a decent phone

stueys

Also search around a bit, the garmin can be had for less

redjeepǃ

What about the Garmin Legend ? I bought one for just over £100 and it does everything I want (i.e. stop me getting lost).

Silly Old Hector

Garmin records your data and you can use Connect.

dw300

Software development costs a ton and bike GPS units usually do more stuff, hence more coding and testing.

Making things smaller is more expensive.

Far more car GPSs are sold, therefore R&D costs are diluted more, hence bike GPS units cost more.

Magnets, sensors, wireless broadcasting technology, waterproofing, battery life.

When you look at a cheap car GPS it does practically bugger all compared to a bike one.

diy

Garmin need to charge so much because they need to spend money fixing all the bugs in the 800. Shop around you can get the 800 for under 300 with hr and cadence. It's a fantastic unit though and you can make up a bat extender for under £10. Don't waste money on the extra bat or os maps. You can get open maps for free