Sat nav demand doubles

 

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Posted on 20 Aug 2007 at 16:26

The satellite navigation business is booming according to sales figures from analysts Canalys.

7.4 million satellite navigation devices were shipped in the second quarter of 2007, a staggering increase of 116% on the same period the year before, according to Canalys.

While Europe continued to dominate shipments, US firms made massive strides with 300% year-on-year growth. The knock-on effect of this has seen Garmin take the top spot from TomTom for the first time in two years with a 25.9% market share.

However, Canalys did warn the future might not be quite so rosy for the market leaders, pointing to the emergence of Nokia and its GPS enabled handsets.

"Nokia is already starting to make its presence felt with its GPS-enabled handsets, such as the N95, and its navigation solution packages," says Chris Jones, Canalys vice president and principal analyst.

"It is already poised just outside the top five after relatively little time in the market. But its future global success will depend on cracking the US market in a way it has not managed to in the past and on delivering solutions that strike a chord with pedestrians as well as drivers."

"Its recent initiatives around A-GPS are clearly focused on delivering the kind of improved user experience that could put its devices into the hands of completely new types of navigation user."

Whatever the future holds for Nokia, Canalys suggests that the future will likely involve a great deal of convergence between the mobile phone and navigation industries, and offered a stark warning to European mobile operators who it said were dragging their heels on the development of new services.

"As more mobile handset vendors get heavily involved in the GPS navigation market, and PND [personal navigation device] vendors start to realise the benefits of connected devices, operators will lose even more control. It will be the faster moving and more innovative navigation and Internet companies that drive location based services," Jones adds.

Author: Stuart Turton