Garmin (GRMN) Stock rose 5.74% today

I'm not sure it's all about the future of PNDs.
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/should-you-navigate-away-...

dedicated gps is dead.

With garmin smartphone link app, I think garmin has a chance to come back.

You can do a google search on your phone, and then bluetooth the result to the garmin unit, and off it starts navigation. You save battery life on the phone, and data usages as well.

Yup, just like mainframe computers were predicted to become obsolete when the pc became popular so many years ago.

Not until a real GPS receiver is included in other devices. Smartphones are based on access to internet access from cell or wifi towers. What happens when they are down? you still need a dedicated GPS receiver.

Again?

....load a RLC file into the phone???

I think that you are mixing up the GPS receiver inside the phone and the maps used by the GPS app. Most - perhaps all - of the "smartphones" now have an actual GPS receiver inside.

If the user depends upon the Google app for navigation, you are correct that you are tied to cell-phone towers unless you stay within a limited area, because the Google app obtains its map "tiles" on an "as needed" basis and does not store them when not in a given area. (It recently added the capability of downloading a limited amount of map data for use away from cell towers, but if you are going to be traveling any real distance while away from cell phone service, the Google app will have significant issues.)

*However*, that problem can easily be avoided if you use a nav app that downloads and stores your maps for an entire region or entire country. I have both the TomTom Android app and the CoPilot Android app on my phone, and each of them can navigate anywhere in North America without a cell phone connection. (They both offer a live traffic service that *does* need a cell connection to obtain data, but I figure that if I am in an area without cell service, the odds are that traffic will not be an issue.)

With best wishes,
- Tom -