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That's pretty much it. I am developing an application which is utterly useless without receiving a GPS signal, so I was wondering if there are any phones which do not possess this feature.

Thank you

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    Just a clarification: Not every device with Android is a phone, and some of the low-end tablets (e.g. some Prestigio models) definitely don't have a GPS receiver.
    – Piskvor left the building
    Commented Aug 25, 2011 at 12:01

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The current Android Compatibility Definition Document says:

7.3.3. GPS

Device implementations SHOULD include a GPS receiver. If a device implementation does include a GPS receiver, it SHOULD include some form of "assisted GPS" technique to minimize GPS lock-on time.

So "SHOULD" does not mean "MUST". [Edited because I messed things up. Apps that require GPS show up in the market regardless of whether the device supports it or not.]

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  • How do you know apps that use GPS won't show up?
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Jul 15, 2011 at 17:20
  • Woops, maybe that's not completely correct. But the FAQ says: "[For] example, an app that manages SMS text messages would not be useful on a media player, so Android Market allows the developer to restrict that app exclusively to phone devices." So, I assumed you can do that for stuff like GPS too.
    – dAnjou
    Commented Jul 15, 2011 at 17:39
  • Hmm. It would make sense for them to allow you to filter by GPS-or-not. But they didn't have filtering by device until recently, and if they're assuming everything has GPS then they might not have bothered.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Jul 15, 2011 at 17:43
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I am almost positive that all Android phones will have a GPS receiver in them. Cnet reviewed the first Droid in 2009 so chances are they will all have GPS.

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At least one - fly iq 431, and few cheap tablets. here we can see that 93% of (all smartphone) owners use some geolocated stuff. Another fact that sort "having GPS" returns 15218 from 16144 ("having touchscreen") unfortunately there is no reverse filter to see specific models, so this could be caused by not filling needed field by seller

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Considering that E911 requires all cell phones to provide location information to emergency services (Wiki Link), nearly every cell phone contains a GPS receiver for E911 services.

Given that information, I'd expect there to be very few cell phones (Android or otherwise) that don't have a GPS receiver built-in. With it already built in, and the OS already having to support it (since the phone system is simply an Android application), it'd be silly to not let other apps take advantage of it (if the user prefers).

One thing to keep in mind: GPS location is a user-controlled option in Android, so it may very well be disabled.

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    "nearly every cell phone contains a GPS receiver for E911 services" That is pure misinformation, plain and simple - the majority of cellphones do not contain a GPS receiver, especially not the older and/or low-end models (smartphones are a different thing altogether). The "location information" required by E911 is provided from cell phone base station identifiers, on phones lacking GPS. (What you'd expect is somewhat irrelevant to what actually exists out there)
    – Piskvor left the building
    Commented Aug 25, 2011 at 11:54

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