The mobile phone industry has questioned the logic of a recent decision to ban the use of smartphones for GPS while driving in Tasmania and South Australia, PC Authority writes this week.

The next time you purchase a smartphone with the intention of using it for GPS, you might want to check your local state or territory laws first. And with prices for smartphones priced as high as $1000, customers may get a rude shock when they find they can't use their phones for GPS while driving in the car.

Last week, the Tasmanian Government announced the ban of using GPS enabled mobile phones while driving in vehicles. But that isn't the confusing part. Oddly, the ban does not extend to portable navigation devices such as TomTom or Navman and it's this inconsistency that has the mobile phone industry fuming.

GPS manufacturer TomTom now sell official cradles for the iPhone (to complement their new iPhone app) - but even those innovations may not be enough to sway the Tasmanian legal eagles from changing the rules.

Randal Markey is the communications manager for the AMTA, the peak industry body that represents a vast collection of mobile industry stakeholders, including a number of big telcos and phone manufacturers such as Telstra, Optus, Virgin Mobile, Nokia,  Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

The AMTA fails to see the difference between a built-in GPS system and one carried by a phone, and has questioned the logic behind the Tasmanian Government position.

Markey argues the law is inconsistent, given that most GPS enabled smartphones (such as the iPhone 3Gs) are essentially the same size and shape of competing stand-alone GPS devices on the market.

Under the new laws, Tasmania will allow the use of mobile phones in vehicles when they are solely used for making and receiving phone calls. You can touch the phone only when making or receiving a phone call but any use of turn-by-turn GPS maps on the phone is strictly prohibited under the law.

"Every other purpose (on the phones) is banned," Markey said.

Markey argues that police may struggle to enforce the law, unable to tell the difference between drivers using different mobile phone functions.

"The law makers are often playing catch up. It will be absolutely impossible to distinguish the different between a person using their phone and using the GPS," Markey said.