Waze and Google Maps made GPS navigators free for cars, but there was a time when that wasn’t the case. And it wasn’t exactly cheap.

Pay for GPS? No thanks. We are so accustomed to the benefits of directions from Google Maps, Waze and other similar applications that we have almost forgotten that a few years ago we had to pay for GPS. And they weren’t very cheap either.

If you think everything was better in the past and life is more expensive than ever, you’re probably right, but not if we stick to GPS directions. Today it’s free thanks in part to Google Maps and Android and a few years ago it cost more than Netflix.

At first it was a luxury

The first portable GPS navigators for commercial use date back to the 1990s, the first being the Megallan NAV 1000. Pioneering and looking more like a scientific calculator than a GPS navigator, it’s no surprise that its price was $1,900 at the time ($4,785 if adjusted for inflation).

For its part, Pronav’s first GPS, which later became Garmin, was put on sale for $2,500 in 1990. Of course, its first customer was none other than the American military.

Over the years, other manufacturers have turned to the sector such as Benefon in 1999, Mio in 2002 or TomTom

which despite being one of the most well-known brands, joined the party a little late by launching its first GPS navigator in 2004. Before that, they had already debuted as navigation software for cars.

It was TomTom who made the GPS as an independent gadget for the car with the launch of the TomTom Go in 2004. This first TomTom Go, which already looked more like a PDA than a scientific calculator, was still not suitable for all budgets even if its price was much more reasonable: 799.95 dollars at the time (1,322.66 if adjusted for inflation).

This TomTom Go has created a new category of products: GPS for car (or the motorcycle, or the bicycle) that many of us remember with more or less nostalgia. A small screen, a suction cup to place it on the window (or other type of support) and the socket for the car’s cigarette lighter. A classic.

Over the years and the rise of more and more models, the price of car GPS has decreased (the TomTom Live 1000 from 2011 cost 300 dollars and the Garmin nüvi 3700 around 449 dollars), but with a small asterisk . If you didn’t want the maps to be obsolete you had to pay a subscription to be able to download updates.

It wasn’t so much the price of the thing itself, but that of cards. GPS navigators that asked you to eat to download maps of Europe, Europe or other countries, and that you pay again to update them later. For example, the TomTom Go Live 1000 costs 300 dollars with one year of cards. Then it was necessary pay a subscription of 50 dollars per year

to be able to update them.

Then smartphones arrived.

Portable GPS navigators coincided with the first smartphone themselves (and they continue to coincide, since they are not yet extinct), although these first smartphones still lacked the grass to be considered a serious alternative.

Android 1.0 came standard with Google Maps, although it was not until Android Ecclair 2.0 that Google Maps was available as standard. Google Maps introduced directionsa great key for GPS navigators because in the coming years everyone will have one of these gadgets in their pocket, offering for free what you have to pay for TomTom GPS.

With Google Maps, all Android mobiles could do the same thing than a portable GPS navigator, the only difference being the quality of the maps and the reliability of the GPS. Both of these problems only improved in the years to come.

If you can’t beat them, join them

TomTom, which started as a software company for handheld devices and expanded by selling hardware with its own navigation software, has decided to return to its origins launches its mobile cards

and has tried practically everything when it comes to monetization.

TomTom Navigation came to Android in 2012 for a small group of phones such as the HTC Desire Maps of the Iberian Peninsula cost 35 dollars as an introductory offer (entire Europe, 60 dollars). A bit high prices for a time when most applications in the application store did not reach the euro.

A few years later, they tried something slightly different with TomTom Go Mobile: You can try it for free for 75 kilometers. Then comes departure time: 16.52 dollars per year or 31.18 dollars for three years. TomTom Go Mobile, now called TomTom Go Navigation, still survives today with current prices of 3.99 dollars per month, 31.99 dollars for six months or 19.99 dollars for a year. If you own a truck, it costs much more (14.99 dollars for a month or 99.99 dollars for the whole year).

Neither Google Maps nor Waze have killed portable GPS for the simple reason that there are those who still prefer them to using a mobile application, although it is undeniable that they have gained a lot of ground. They used to be very common as co-pilots on our trips and now they are more the exception than the rule.

They say that when you don’t pay for a product, you are the product. Google Maps and Waze are free in exchange for lending your data to Google for various things, like knowing the traffic or what type of ads you like the most, but in exchange you don’t need to pay to have updated maps and quality navigation. There will be those who find this useful and there will be those who continue to prefer regular GPS. For now, both things are possible.

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