Compared with elsewhere in the developed world, GPS systems in New Zealand are dumb. At the consumer level, there's no real-time traffic information being beamed to incar satellite navigation units, allowing them to pick a truely smart route. That's about to change.

At Navman's launch of its new S Series (details here), the company's ANZ Marketing Director, Wendy Hammond, let slip that a long-rumoured real-time traffic service could be offered from January.

Common in GPS systems overseas, a real-time service uses the cellular phone network to push traffic updates to in-car satellite navigation systems, allowing them to reclibrate routes on the fly and avoid jams. Even for those who know their city streets like the back of their hand, that's a pretty useful feature, and one that creates a much wider market for GPS.

Hammond says while the S Series as it stands is not equipped to receive a real-time traffic signal (commonly sent over GPS/GPRS), an adapter would be available in the new year.

Pictured below: Navman's new S200 (more launch details here):