I have already covered the current state of GPS Navigation & Future challenges in my earlier post. In the subsequent post, I talked about future of Personal Navigation Devices. Recent report released by ABI Research on ‘Location Systems & Platform Forecast’ confirms the earlier speculations about PNDs & Navigation Systems as a whole. According to latest report, handset based navigation shipments to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 43{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} over the next five years, rising from 30 million in 2010 to 181 million in 2015.
According to Dominique Bonte, Telematics and navigation practice director, “The handset navigation boom is largely driven by free turn-by-turn navigation solutions recently made available by Nokia and Google. During its last earnings call, Nokia announced that Ovi Maps had already been downloaded more than 10 million times. While Google Maps Navigation was initially only available on Android phones in the US, it is expected to be introduced gradually on other platforms and in other markets, as demonstrated by the recent launch in the UK.”
The growing trend to use handset based navigation has resulted into downfall of market shares of PND makers, such as Tom Tom & Garmin. Last week, Tom Tom also announced the Internet based high end PND “Go Live 1000” to keep up with the competition. According to the report, navigation services along with LBS (Location-Based Services) are being included in packaged offers from handset vendors and carriers, subsidized by smartphone hardware or data communication revenues.
What will happen to Navigation industry then? According to Bonte, “There’s pressure on small independent vendors to increase market share and revenue. This is because of introduction of new business model, which upsets the traditional model of paying VAS price directly to mobile service provider “, he continued, “Consolidation will be the only way out”
Stay Tune!
Picture is courtesy of n95_8go photostream from Flickr
