Navx

#1 - How will the PND market grow in the next 5 years ?

We start our review of the 10 most critical questions by one about growth. PNDs have been one of the great consumer electronics success stories of the past two years (remember TomTom reporting revenue growth of 89% for financial year 2006 and continued growth in 2007). But how long can it last ? 

A new report from Juniper Research estimates that revenues from portable navigation solutions, including PNDs and software solutions will exceed €8.3 billion in Western Europe by 2012 (that's about twice as much as today). According to ABN Amro, 16 millions PNDs will be shipped in Europe in 2007, growing to 31 millions in 2011.

Growth has been mainly driven by price elasticity, with sales increasing as prices were falling rapidly. With very good products priced at 200€, the market boomed, and we are likely to see products hitting Xmas under the 100€ price tag.

Innovation will now heavily sustain growth: we expect PNDs to include real-time traffic information, to be connected, and to include community-based services centered around map upgrades (see TomTom's mapshare) and geolocalized content (watch NAVX !). This will provide GPS users good reasons to upgrade to new and better devices.

The market will continue to grow in the next 5 years, with inexpensive entry level devices stimulating first time buyers and a large offer of more sophisticated devices contributing to transform the market into a replacement market.

 

technorati tags: TomTom Garmin PND GPS navigation mobile phone PDA 

Garmin counterattacks

Garmin is launching a counter offer on TeleAtlas. They raise the offer to 24.50 € per share in cash, that is 15% higher than TomTom's initial offer. This values TeleAtlas € 2,3 bn.

TomTom announced on 24 July that it has agreed to acquire Tele Atlas for $2.77 billion (see here). But the deal between TeleAtlas and TomTom was not closed and today, on 31 Octobre, Garmin decides to enter in the dance with an unsolicited $3.3 billion offer.

We think it is likely going to launch a battle between the two GPS manufacturers, both having some flexibility to increase their offer by 5 to 10€.

See Reuters for updates, and we will discuss about it.

technorati tags: TomTom Garmin Teleatlas

The 10 most crucial questions about the navigation market

The navigation market has been gaining a lot of traction in the last 12 months. As we meet with GPS manufacturers, navigation software editors, financial analysts and VCs, we keep hearing the same questions about where the industry is heading.

We have listed below what we think are the 10 most important questions. In the next two weeks, we will humbly provide our answers and we hope to trigger discussions on the blog. And if you think of any other relevant question, please feel free to ask them, we’ll try to give you our best answer.

1. How will the PND market grow in the next 5 years ?
2. Will the current dominant PND players be threatened by new entrants ?
3. Why does TomTom want to buy TeleAtlas ?
4. What are the key strategic concerns of PND players for the next 3-5 years ?
5. When will we see connected PNDs and are they relevant ?
6. Will smartphones cannibalize PNDs ?
7. How will the GPS phone market evolve in the next 3 years ?
8. Why did Nokia buy Navteq ?
9. Will LBS services finally take off, how and on which platform ?
10. How will the GPS business consolidate ?

technorati tags: GPS Smartphones navigation market

What's happening in San Francisco ?

Today is the last day of the CTIA Wireless I.T and Entertainment 2007 in SanFrancisco, one of the most important global technology events that connect wireless industry, entertainment and communications businesses.

According to Robert who was there, one of the major buzzes of the CTIA this week would be the new mobile social networking phenomenon. It's about adapting the models of Facebook and MySpace, making them portable and allow people to create networks of friends on the move.

No doubt, social networking services that allow friends and families to stay in touch wherever they go through their mobile phones, services that show where they are on a map, GPS geo-tagging of pictures and even the ability to leave geo-tagged notes about everything is cool for the new generation. There are already so many teens  to use a mobile platform for blogging, messaging, sharing photos, videos... and a great market for these new technologies.

Maybe you have already heard Eric Schmidt saying "Mobile, mobile, mobile - it's probably the most wide open space out there right now" to explain the long-term focus of Google. Well yes. There is a lot of buzz, a lot of work for that biggest growth area.

technorati tags: CTIA social networking mobile gps navigation

They want Mobile Phone GPS

TeleAtlas announced the results of  a consumer study about Wireless GPS : It's not the big surprise, Mobile Phone navigation is going to be in high demand.

The study shows that the vast majority (84%) of consumers surveyed that a GPS navigation on their phone was a good idea, nearly 75% want to use the device to find points of interest (POIs) and 68 % want access to their current location via a detailed map.

(But according to the results, those who already have a navigation system would not replace their current system after the acquisition of such a GPS- enabled cell phone; rather, users would leverage both systems !)

There is also a market demand for LBS and "locator" services: 84% of respondents are interested in "child locator" services that would show a detailed route to where their child is currently, and 47 % interested in "friend locator" services.

So, the study confirms that people want GPS in their mobile phone and they are interested in GPS applications that provide rich and dynamic content. Cool.

Click here to read the press release.

technorati tags: Teleatlas mobile navigation GPS mobile phone

Be part of the Google Maps community

New dimension of Google Maps : "User Profile Pages" so that you discover the real people behind the maps you are viewing. You can create your own User Profile click "My Profile" at the top right of Google Maps.

Here is a video of the Google Maps Team for more info :

technorati tags: google maps profile

3,2,1 We have liftoff

The latest GPS Satellite is successfully launched into orbit yesterday by the US Air Force Station.
The NAVSTAR GPS was launched at 8:23 a.m in Floride : Mike was there, see the story in pocketgpsworld !!
(No, "GPS is not only a military asset, but a national asset due to its civil applications" said Capt. Bill Bakker, GPS IIR field program manager. We agree :-)

 

Flickr upgrades : New geotagging and Places Pages

Flickr is making important upgrades of geotagging and they are launching a new area called “Places Pages” on the site. These are dedicated pages that provide users with specific information about places with the concept of “interestingness”: see an overview here. For the geotagging upgrades, no changes to the way photos are geotagged (using Yahoo maps), but they are updating the results pages for searches so that users can quickly find photos based on tags and geotagged information. 

technorati tags: Flick geotagging gps

Nokia N810 Internet Tablet launched today

Nokia's new N810 Internet Tablet has been launched today at Web 2.0 San Francisco (a long-rumored update to its popular N800 tablet.) You can make Internet calls via WiFi and Bluetooth or browse freely using the slide-out QWERTY keyboard and 4.13" touchscreen. There are built in maps and the GPS - with Wayfinder software available for upgrade - so no need for an extra gadget in the car. See the press release here for all other features. And see rodrigo for important analysis :-)

technorati tags: Nokia 810 GPS navigation

TomTom One XL. S just for USA

Just a quick post for the new TomTom ONE XL. S launched today for USA.It's basically the same ONE XL but it's also the first product in the TomTom ONE XL range to offer text-to-speech technology, enabling street names and places to be read aloud as part of the spoken navigation instructions.   (Also TomTom Map Share and  "HELP ME!" features too -on a 4.3 inch screen.)

technorati tags: TomTom GPS navigation 

Microsoft eyeing-buying Garmin ?

Rumors have been flying all week that Garmin may be purchased by Microsoft, and it's not only message board speculation, there is now a link of reference : Information Week published this article about the rumored acquisition !

One of the argument is that Microsoft's been working hard recently to get Windows Mobile onto as many phones as possible, and navigation technology could be important for the future of that strategy.
Also, Garmin who is already in partnership with Microsoft to offer features such as updated gas prices, weather conditions and forecasts etc.

All that said, Garmin would be a huge purchase for Microsoft whose large acquisition has been $6 billion (for an ad company in may). Garmin's current market cap is almost $24 billion (more than 3 times of Navteq). So..let's just wish good luck to Microsoft.

ps. Reactions ? In message boards, lots of message that say "please dont let this deal happen, I want to use Garmin GPS,  not Microsoft GPS". Calm down guys, nothing's sure at the moment.

 technorati tags: Microsoft Garmin GPS navigation

Location, location, location

This week, personal navigation is again on the Economist. TomTom and its main rival Garmin make nearly half of all PND's but the article says that "their dominance and profitability  is unlikely to persist". That means PNDs will soon become commodity ? No according to the big GPS manufacturers but yes according to the Economist : PNDs prices have already dropped while Nokia and other start-ups like Dash begun to shake up the market. 

Of course the big bet for PNDs now is the supplementary services rather than basic navigation systems: real-time traffic information, fuel prices or screening times at cinemas...But Nokia have also interesting offerings like geo-tagging (users of Nokia will be able to write a review of restaurants that others can read) etc. So both Nokia and TomTom need enthusiastic subscribers to update and improve their maps, and above all, to control the maps they use (so that they don't fall into the hands of Microsoft and Google) to keep a big share of the revenue generated by location-based services.
Meanwhile they seem to close their eyes to the nascent open-map movement : You know that there is a website called "OpenStreetMap" to create a detailed, free map of the world -if there is enough users.
But this would be sad and a bit overpriced for TomTom and Nokia's acquisitions, no ? 

technorati tags: PND GPS nokia tomtom navigation map 

There's always a way out. Mio.

Nokia to Acquire Navteq

This morning, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site that Nokia was deep in talks to buy digital map supplier Navteq: The acquisition of Chicago-based Navteq, which has a market capitalization of $7.6 billion, would be one of Nokia's largest-ever corporate takeovers.

In fact the two companies are not new to each other, they have already a business relationship as Navteq provides information for Nokia's mobile phones. Anyway, Nokia's interest in Navteq represents a big move into the mobile-services arena, a reflection of its aggressive push into the mobile services, beyond its current suite of offerings related to games and music. Remember that Nokia has recently announced plans to move more into mobile content and services, including further development of its Nokia Maps service.

Nokia and Navteq declined to comment, so we just have to wait and see.

EDIT : It's over. They announced a definitive agreement for Nokia to acquire Navteq !! You can see the press release, here.

ps. Yes, Nokia will pay approximately $8.1 billion (€5.7 billion) net of NAVTEQ existing cash balance. 

technorati tags: Nokia Navteq mobile navigation maps