Cellphones to dominate for navigation, study finds

Standalone navigation devices will give way to mobile phones as the worldwide portable navigation market explodes over the next several years, according to a report from Telematics Research Group.
The market research firm said 30 million dedicated navigation devices were sold last year, outpacing navigation-enabled mobile phone sales by 50%. But wireless handsets and other Internet-enabled gadgets will fuel massive growth in the space, with the market growing from 50 million units in 2007 to more than 500 million units in 2015, TRG predicted.
“In the years to come, navigation-enabled mobile phones will be used for auto navigation, pedestrian navigation and many other types of location-based services,” said TRG analyst Egil Juliussen. “This opens up a new world of services and capabilities.”
That shift poses a substantial threat to Garmin Ltd. and TomTom, which dominate the market for standalone navigation hardware. And it helps explain the recent bidding war for Tele Atlas NV, a digital mapping company set to be acquired by TomTom for $4.25 billion.
Navteq, a Tele Atlas rival and the only other sizable player in the digital mapping space, was recently snapped up by Nokia Corp. for a whopping $8.1 billion.
While both dedicated devices and navigation-enabled phones are expected to grow rapidly over the next few years, phones will begin outselling standalone devices in 2009, TRG predicted.
“A large volume market for inexpensive, dedicated navigation devices will live on past 2008,” said Juliussen. “Dedicated personal navigation devices are mobile devices optimized for navigation while mobile phones with navigation are optimized for communications, which gives them an advantage in the emerging new world order for navigation.”