GPS: Common knowledge?
April 10, 2013 8:23 AM   Subscribe

Are there any published studies / figures about what percentage of smartphone users know what GPS is (i.e., do smartphone users know GPS determines your precise location)? Bonus question: do they know it's a battery drainer?

I'm looking specifically for actual data, not anecdata. I need to back up my position to skeptical coworkers. I work at a small software shop making a GPS-using app, and we're having some debate about what people know.
posted by Vampire Cat to Technology (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Since you aren't getting any answers, I'll just chime in with maybe users don't know what GPS is, but they might be familiar with the idea that their phones can figure out their location. I would be surprised if a user would be interested in a location enabled application if they didn't already know their phones could provide location data.
posted by gjc at 4:03 PM on April 10, 2013


Not trying to start a fight, but Eric Raymond says GPS (on an Android) is not a battery drainer.
posted by Bruce H. at 6:18 PM on April 10, 2013


Thats not what Eric Raymond is saying at all. He is saying that a piece of software on android that is used to make GPS readings available to other apps isn't *usually* burning power by spinning in a busy loop. He says right near the top that activating and using the actual GPS receiver "eats power."

I have no stats, but I'll point out out that GPS Nav has been an option on many new cars for years, and until,the rise of smartphones, 3rd party GPS nav devices sold pretty well. The concept isn't a new one in the mainstream marketplace.

The best thing to do when you are developing software and have a question about what users think is to find some and ask them. Its a good habit to get in.
posted by Good Brain at 12:45 AM on April 11, 2013


Best answer: Super quick search (most results that come up have to do with GPS and user privacy concerns) but I came up with:

Burghardt, et al. "Understanding User Preferences and Awareness: Privacy Mechanisms in Location-Based Services." On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 5870, 2009, pp 304-321.
-Addresses your topic, though I don't think a percentage is given (it's not open access and I didn't bother pulling my access in to get to the full article).

Brush, A. J., Krumm, J., & Scott, J. (2010). "Exploring end user preferences for location obfuscation, location-based services, and the value of location." In Proceedings of the 12th ACM international conference on Ubiquitous computing, pp. 95-104.
-This one's great because they ask their small participant pool exactly the question you have (do you understand GPS, especially wrt to privacy) and conclude that the answer is mostly yes, though there are some varying levels of understanding.

Poole, E. S., et al. "Reflecting on the invisible: understanding end-user perceptions of ubiquitous computing." Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Ubiquitous computing. ACM, 2008.
-This one gets at the topic a little sideways (analyzing RFID, they note how often users conflate it with GPS and how little they understand either technology).

I didn't really see any data-verified study that quantifies smartphone end-user understanding of GPS. The closest I came was for a marketing research firm that in 2011 noted 80% of smartphone users used their phone for navigation and maps (the press release didn't explain whether the firm queried users about the details and understanding of use but I doubt it).
posted by librarylis at 6:15 PM on April 11, 2013


Response by poster: Awesome, thank you! I had just about given up on the question :)
posted by Vampire Cat at 8:43 PM on April 12, 2013


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