[amitk26]

A small rejoinder to this interesting debate Android is now 76% of smart phone market iOS is 17.6 windows around 3 and bb is at 4th place.These are 1Q2013 numbers.

Overall smartphone sales share is more then feature phones for the first time.

And yes I am pretty sure about accuracy of data.

In any case with these kind of numbers the sample is far better then so called random samples which a human observation based system can generate.

Iirc centrality theorem of statistics can be applied if there is a truly random sample of size as small as 30 out of a large population. So it should be fairly easy for Google to predict with confidence of high 90s with sample they have.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by binand

... Summarizing, I think you are arguing simply for the sake of arguing. ...

Considering you had only (at best tenuous) assumptions at the start of the discussion, and have continuously tried to make them sound plausible (albeit without actual data, only surmises like you have done for Mumbai possibilities), this sounds like a petulant 'pot calling a kettle black'.

As far as my views are concerned, I have expressed a lot of things you haven't really read or understood. I am rather amused that you would like me to buy an Android phone / tablet just to know Traffic Conditions! Having driven for a very long time (and seen traffic patterns change / deteriorate) in Bangalore, I - like any other Bangalore resident - KNOW the pressure point areas, which I don't even need a map to know how to avoid. What you have been so zealously arguing about, is usually a trivial issue for most.

Since you can't be convinced / won't look at the issue any other way (there are many other such adamant groups in the world who subscribe to the same speculative methodology purely based on 'belief'), perhaps only Google can tell you what they do? The others here have just tried to put forth their 'consumer behaviour' observations without prejudice. One can't extend the logic of 'popularity of phone OS' to 'absolute preference of an application from the same vendor'.

On the issue of business dominance of Google v/s PND manufacturers, I don't matter, and you should realize neither do you. Perhaps you should moderate the thoughts of 'world dominance' based on logic, not belief, since such ideologies are at best irritants for some time before fading away. The real world works on principles which are a bit different from how Internet-centric geeks think it does.

[binand]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Considering you had only (at best tenuous) assumptions at the start of the discussion, and have continuously tried to make them sound plausible (albeit without actual data, only surmises like you have done for Mumbai possibilities), this sounds like a petulant 'pot calling a kettle black'.

Perhaps you are right - I wouldn't deny the pot-kettle part. As for the actual data - I quoted numbers which I found either on the website of the agency mentioned or in a press report, scaling it upwards a bit (to correct for staleness). Maybe it is off by about 10% or even 20% - but not by many orders of magnitude.

Eg: BEST had 4700 buses in 2011: http://articles.timesofindia.indiati...nts-passengers
Meru claims to have 1800 cabs in 2010 in Mumbai: http://www.merucabs.com/about-us/

Originally Posted by DerAlte

I am rather amused that you would like me to buy an Android phone / tablet just to know Traffic Conditions! Having driven for a very long time (and seen traffic patterns change / deteriorate) in Bangalore, I - like any other Bangalore resident - KNOW the pressure point areas, which I don't even need a map to know how to avoid.

Well you see - I moved to Bangalore about 2 years back, so I have no idea of these pressure points. If my mobile tells me about those, wouldn't I consider it a useful feature? I never wanted you to buy an Android phone (in fact, my view is that I have an Android, it has this feature, so I'll use it). I take flights out of BIAL regularly (at all times of the day) and as someone who drives to the airport it helps me in knowing the choke points on the way. The phone helps me in that. Suppose you had to relocate to a different city - say a Kolkata or an Ahmedabad - wouldn't you appreciate such a feature?

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by binand

... Suppose you had to relocate to a different city - say a Kolkata or an Ahmedabad - wouldn't you appreciate such a feature?

Sir, if you come across that situation in a place new to you, what would matter most is the most efficient alternative to pressure points, not the pressure point itsef. No better source than asking a (local) colleague how best to get from point A to point B. In that, colloquial knowledge always trumps the best software.

Despite all the help if you get stuck, only a good music system can help you deal with the anxiety and frustration.

PS: It is better to start well enough in advance, take the BIAL bus or a taxi to / from the airport, and leave the worries to the driver! There are hardly any choking points beyond Mehri Circle now.

[binand]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Sir, if you come across that situation in a place new to you, what would matter most is the most efficient alternative to pressure points, not the pressure point itsef. No better source than asking a (local) colleague how best to get from point A to point B. In that, colloquial knowledge always trumps the best software.

Agreed with your first part. And that is what Google Maps does for me - it factors into the "current" situation at the pressure points and routes one via the best among several alternatives. So, given that the shortest route from my home to BIAL is via ORR/Hebbal, at low traffic times it routes me through there. During the daytime, it avoids KR Puram (the biggest pressure point on the route) instead sending me via either CV Raman Nagar/OMR or MG Road/Sankey Road.

One time when I ignored its advice, I got caught in a terrible traffic jam at Nagavara junction at 1AM - spent 45 minutes in barely-moving traffic (an overturned truck on ORR, I think).

Originally Posted by DerAlte

PS: It is better to start well enough in advance, take the BIAL bus or a taxi to / from the airport, and leave the worries to the driver! There are hardly any choking points beyond Mehri Circle now.

I take the 6:10AM flight to Mumbai, to catch which I start from home at 4AM. I do need a little bit of sleep every day, you know. :-) The nearest bus stop to my home is at HAL, which is about 5km with no commuting options (I live in Yemalur). Taxi to BIAL costs 1100 per trip which is not something I can afford.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

No better source than asking a (local) colleague how best to get from point A to point B. In that, colloquial knowledge always trumps the best software.

I wish I had a smartphone back in 2001-04 when I lived in Hosur and frequented Bangalore quite often !!!! I was always confused with the number of roads that lead into a 'Circle'. I followed the old trusted method of asking the chai shops/auto wallahs etc, but when they said take the left at the circle and I reached the circle, there would be 3 lefts.

There was this one night when I asked for directions to get back to Hosur (I was in Brigade Road) and I was directed to Hunsur which I realised after driving for 30 minutes and no sign of the 4 lane.

I use Maps only for directions, distance and navigation and I found Google Maps to be great on these 3. Nokia Maps has sent me on wild goose chases many times, it even asked me to do a 'Bond like' jump over a fence and fly across a railway line to reach my destination.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

... when they said take the left at the circle and I reached the circle, there would be 3 lefts. ...

Fantastic interpretation - forever the entertainer, you!

Yes, there are quite a few 5-road intersections in Bangalore. But, the instructions are always clear: 'left' is the first one on the left ('first exit' in Nav parlance), 2nd left or straight (depends on size of road) is the next one, and so on ... (since it is a circle, one can't say 'right' without being wrong on the road).

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

... There was this one night when I asked for directions to get back to Hosur (I was in Brigade Road) and I was directed to Hunsur ...

May be that person's had inferred it was safer to send you to Hunsur than Hosur. Otherwise, Brigade Road (it is a one-way) will lead you, within 300m, straight to Hosur Road without any lefts or rights till Hosur. In any case you would have reached a 4-laner within 30 min at that hour even if you were going to Hunsur: Mysore Road, if you had wrongly taken a right at the lights after Brigade Road!

[bassman]

Wanted to add to this point: yesterday mmi app on iphone proved to be a life saver. On my way back from goa, i needed to make a detour via sindhudurg. Upon reaching we decided to visit tarkarli as well. Eventually came back to pune from sindhudurg-gaganbavla-kohlapur-pune.
In all this, i had no cell phone reception in the sindhudurg district area. Reception around the ghats was also sporadic.
In this cell phone blackout, it was mmi saved the day. Offline maps for google would not have worked in this case as there was no reception at any point if time to download the entire set. Having the entire map data (1gb) for mmi helps at any point of time. There are still some remote locations in india where there is no cell phone coverage.

[saket77]

Even I had a good experience with MMI yesterday. I was in Jamshedpur, which has confusing, same looking roads. I had to cover 4-5 places and POIs, and thankfully, using the MMI, I did not have to ask for roads to a single person.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Fantastic interpretation - forever the entertainer, you!

Thank you Der Alte, I hope I can be one.

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Yes, there are quite a few 5-road intersections in Bangalore. But, the instructions are always clear: 'left' is the first one on the left ('first exit' in Nav parlance), 2nd left or straight (depends on size of road) is the next one, and so on ... (since it is a circle, one can't say 'right' without being wrong on the road).

I have taken that first left and paid the price many a time in Bangalore. My car & bike would have clocked many more unwanted KMs in BLR than anywhere else in my whole life.

Originally Posted by DerAlte

May be that person's had inferred it was safer to send you to Hunsur than Hosur. Otherwise, Brigade Road (it is a one-way) will lead you, within 300m, straight to Hosur Road without any lefts or rights till Hosur.

That I guess could be right, but why ??? I am not so bad/good. Why Hunsur ? Who will ask for directions to Hunsur from Bangalore ?
After that incident, I learnt from my brother who lived there for long, that I was stupid and should have followed the Brigade road which is ultimately the road back to Hosur and never missed it since.

Originally Posted by bassman

In this cell phone blackout, it was mmi saved the day. Offline maps for google would not have worked in this case as there was no reception at any point if time to download the entire set. Having the entire map data (1gb) for mmi helps at any point of time. There are still some remote locations in india where there is no cell phone coverage.

Nokia too had the option to download the entire map of the world if you chose to and I downloaded the entire India map in all my Nokia phones.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

... Why Hunsur ? Who will ask for directions to Hunsur from Bangalore ? ...

Probably due to the peculiarities of pronunciation. Locals, especially from the outskirts / rural areas, would pronounce Hosur in a way that it sounds more like 'wassur' / 'wo-ssur', not 'HOssur'. Hunsur becomes 'wunsur' or 'wansur'. If anyone is lip-reading more than trying to understand the sound, there can be confusion.

The same confusion happens with Bangalore & Mangalore in English. But, not in vernacular - 'Benga-looroo' and 'Mang-looroo' sound different enough, even the lip movement.

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Why Hunsur ? Who will ask for directions to Hunsur from Bangalore ?

But how do you know that someone directed you to Hunsur and not in some random direction ?
In fact to go to Hunsur either you have to take Mysore road or through Channaryapattana ( on way to Hassan) ? So no one can direct you straight away they have to use these reference points to direct you to Hunsur.

Originally Posted by DerAlte

Probably due to the peculiarities of pronunciation.

I have a simpler explanation , people in most parts of India including Bangalore don't want to disappoint anyone by saying no if they don't know or understand anything.

Even if they have no faint idea of what is being asked they just point out in a random direction hoping that someone else will help somewhere

I have been a sufferer of these over helpful people several times so now I always look at the expressions of the person to check how confident he is and always cross verify at a little distance.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by amitk26

... people in most parts of India including Bangalore don't want to disappoint anyone by saying no if they don't know or understand anything. ...

Absolutely correct, @amitk26, though there are places where one hears a simple "Nahin pata / Nahin maloom, aagey poochh lo" ("I don't know, please ask further ahead") - which is actually a true statement on the part of the person one asks.

[Chandrainsky]

Not sure if this is mentioned in this thread (tried to read through but perhaps too lazy). There is a free version of mapmyindia in google app store. The link is provided in mapmyindia website of course. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...m1taS5tYXBzIl0).

Anyone tried it out? Is that really free? And works as well as the MMI maps in their own devices? Any catch?

[9thsphinx]

Google Maps have been updated and is now simply called "New Google Maps". You just goto maps.google.com and send in a request to them for enlisting in their program to try out hte new maps. If and once you're in they'll send you a link - click on it and you're there!

I find the new maps a bit more easier to use, has the traffic feature (which doesn't quite add up here in Ahmedabad) and you have a new search box for recent searches, traffic and alternate routes etc.

Not quite sure how this would hurt MapmyIndia, but that will only be known once the new version starts popping up as an update for Mobile and GPS devices.