Could you explain why the P-70 Ultra has only limited support for iOS and iPadOS?
Since 2018, Apple has restricted external GNSS receivers from accessing the iOS Location Service. This means no external GNSS device can share its location data directly with iOS at the system level. As a result, apps running on iOS can no longer receive location data from external GNSS devices through the operating system.
Because of this policy, no GNSS receiver on the market is fully compatible with iOS at the system level.
Instead, Apple recommends that external GNSS devices connect to apps at the app level via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). For this to work, the app developer must preload the BLE ID of the specific GNSS device into the app so it can recognize and communicate with it.
P-70 can connect to iOS apps via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which enables app-level compatibility with iPhones and iPads. iOS developers can integrate BLE connectivity into their apps to work with GNSS receivers like the P-70. Here’s an example from the Columbus P-7 (a sister product of the P-70), showing how developers can implement BLE support:
https://cbgps.com/p7/app/developer/btle/index_en.htm
Another example is the Columbus P-9 (also a sister product of the P-70), where multiple iOS apps have successfully added BLE connections to the device, making them fully P-9 compatible:
https://cbgps.com/p9/support_en.htm
On the other hand, the P-70 is fully compatible at the OS level with macOS, Windows, Linux, and Android, allowing it to work seamlessly with applications running on those platforms.