Canalys: US overtakes Europe as largest SatNav market
Date: Tuesday, March 17 @ 12:14:48 UTC
Topic:


Canalys GPSFigures just released from the analyst company Canalys show that the USA has finally overtaken Europe as the largest SatNav market, with Garmin being the biggest player in the PND sector. With 52% of the worldwide shipments the USA has become the driving force for navigation. Worldwide the PND Market is dominated by the Garmin/TomTom duo with two thirds of all the units shipped.

Interestingly the report highlights the explosion of the SmartPhone market, with new dynamic connected services. This is something we have been predicting for some time now and with the introduction of stylish large screen systems the SmartPhone could be a real threat to the PND, certainly in terms of market share.

We have seen a number of navigation companies move into this area, CoPilot have been there for a long time, but now the Garmin-Asus partnership, the release of Android, possibilities with the iPhone, not to mention the 70% of SmartPhones with built-in GPS. Already in this sector are companies such as Networks In Motion, TelMap, TelNav and deCarta who provide white label solutions for carriers. Nokia also moved into the market in a big way buying both Gate5 and Nokia. Now we have TomTom not producing SmartPhone software, but providing a 'ToolKit' (another term for white label) for navigation.

Does this signal the death of the PND? Will we see the SmartPhone sector dominate navigation and the connected services proving the tipping point for mass adoption? Are the PND manufacturers positioned correctly to exploit this new market?

The full press release from Canalys follows:

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