Will walkers be switching their compass and map for a bit of global positioning gadgetry?
Photograph: Don McPhee/Guardian

A shiny new satellite navigation system is likely to be at the top of many a driver's Christmas list this year.

But what if you don't have a car? Walkers can get lost too, and cyclists, and all you runners. It seems we will all be lost in 2007 without global positioning system (GPS) in our lives (according to some clever pre-Christmas advertising campaigns at least).

"GPS - or satellite navigation - is not the exclusive preserve or expectation of the car driver ... We have just the package for walkers, runners and cyclists," explains Edward Giles of ExtremeGB.com.

Their Suunto X9i GPS watch (price tag of £304.50) boasts not only GPS, but a 3D compass, temperature indicator, stopwatch, altimeter, weather-trend graph, and barometer reading sea-level pressure ... I'm exhausted just reading about it. Let alone attempting to climb a mountain with it.

So does this mean that plastic waterproof map-holders will no longer be the height of hiking finesse? And will we bid farewell to all those Fell walkers quaintly clutching their Wainwrights as they wander about the Lake District?

A quick search in Google brings up an impressive range of GPS gear for cyclists and walkers, with prices starting from a more palatable £76. In fact the longer I search the more I want one of the damn things. They really are everywhere.

But call me foolhardy, I kind of like the idea of heading into the unknown with just a map in your back pocket knowing that, just maybe, you might get lost.