Why BlackBerry GPS is slow compared to other technologies (iPhone & Android)

Question

hi all i am working on Application which is bashed on Event according to current location .when my application start i am displaying Event in my ListField according to current location. Application works fine in Simulator after sending Latitude & Longitude manually from simulator.

When i test this app in my device BB storm2 9550, device cant get current location within 3 or 4 second (during Splash screen) . but after some time it get current location successfully .

how can i get my current location as fast as iphone an Android ? is there any way to get current lat long from device GPS system which we are getting on Refresh GPS .

please suggest me if any one have any idea. Thanks in Adavance !!!

Answer 1

if you are not getting lat/long quickly then it sounds like you are trying to get the locations using the GPS radio. This would mean it will take time to connect to the satellites . this would also require sky in sight of the phone, ie it will not work indoors.

The quickest way to get lat/longs are

1. Use cellsite technology( Blackberry supports this in some devices using triangulation)
2. Use a cellid provider like google location api or opencellid to get the lat/long using the current cell id.

These doesnt drain the battery as much as using the GPS radio so if you can , try using these. Although the lat/long are not accurate as GPS radio lat/longs.

Please check the following for all the info you would ever need for blackberry GPS techniques.

1. Simple Location API
2. Location API- start to finish

Answer 2

At a hardware level, BlackBerry devices used to mount Qualcomm's gpsOne chipset, which, in my opinion, is slower than the ones you could find in most recent Android or Apple devices (SiRFstar or Broadcom, etc). Or maybe the BlackBerry OS didn't interface with it in an efficient manner. For whatever reason, I've experienced higher TTFFs in BlackBerry devices than in Android, for a given place. I may be wrong here, it is just an opinion.

I think newer BlacBerries are mounting other chipsets now. And also, as of September 2011, WiFi geolocation service is also available in OS 6.0 and later. Before that, the only location service in BB was A-GPS and celltower (only OS 5.0 onwards).

Some useful links:
Location APIs – Start to finish
Simple Location API