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Navigation is Proving to Be the Location-Based Service With the Far Greatest Potential in the Wireless Industry Read More Inside Mobile Personal Navigation Services

Posted on: Tuesday, 30 May 2006, 12:00 CDT

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c37729) has announced the addition of Mobile Personal Navigation Services from Berg Insight to their offering.

What are the opportunities for mobile industry players on the booming personal navigation market? After PDA systems which opened up the market and PND systems which popularised it, handset based solutions are expected to bring personal navigation to the broad masses. Navigation is proving to be the location-based service with the far greatest potential in the wireless industry. This 100+ page report in LBS Research Series provides insights and detailed analysis of the personal navigation market in Europe and the United States.

Highlights:

- Introduction to personal navigation solutions for PDA, PND and handsets.

- Overview of digital map technology and dynamic content providers.

- Profiles of navigation device vendors, on-board software vendors and off-board solution providers.

- Case studies of mobile operator navigation service offerings in Europe and the United States.

- Vendor market shares and market forecasts for Europe and the United States until 2009.

Key questions answered by the report:

- How will the fast growing personal navigation market evolve in the coming years?

- What are the main trends in Europe and the United States?

- When will personal navigation take off in the handset segment?

- How should mobile operators position themselves as providers of personal navigation services?

- What are the initial navigation propositions from operators such as Orange, TeliaSonera, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless?

Contents are as follows:-

List of Figures

Executive summary

1 Personal navigation solutions

2 Map data and content providers

3 Navigation devices and software providers

4 Off-board navigation solution providers

5 Case studies: Mobile operator navigation service offerings

6 Market forecasts strategic issues

INDEX MOBILE PERSONAL NAVIGATION SERVICES

The personal navigation market is growing rapidly today. Overall sales of personal navigation in Europe and the US surpassed 8 million units in 2005 and are expected to reach almost 14 million units in 2006. The European market is far more advanced and successful compared to the US market. Portable navigation that as a market started out in 2002 contains today three segments - PDA navigation, stand alone navigation (PND) and smartphone navigation.

The first market that came into place in 2003 was the PDA navigation. In 2004 the PND hit the market even though the PDA sales were larger during that year. In 2005 the PND form factor was very successful on the market and sales outnumbered the PDA navigation sales. Right now the third wave of navigation is coming into the market -smartphone navigation.

The personal navigation value chain comprises three principal categories of players. These are map data providers, navigation solution providers and device manufacturers. In many cases, dynamic content providers and mobile operators are also involved. Digital map data for the personal navigation market are today available from two dominant players - NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas.

Navigation software is available from numerous providers developing products for several hardware platforms. Some software providers develop software for all platforms and operating systems, and both on-board and off-board systems. However, only a few players design and manufacture PNDs as well as develop navigation software in-house.

Most PND providers outsource the hardware manufacturing and navigation software development and focus on providing competitively priced and customised bundles to end users.

Off-board solution providers offer their client applications either directly to end users for download via the Internet or as white label solutions for network operators. Network operators can choose to provide off-board navigation solutions by licensing software platforms or by relying on complete hosted solutions. End users can get access to dynamic content using EGIC RESEARCH LBS RESEARCH SERIES SERIES RDS-TMC receivers or via GPRS. In off-board solutions the dynamic content is usually integrated on the server side and sent together with the map data to the end user's navigation device using a wireless network.

Mobile network operators have only recently begun offering navigation services. Not surprisingly operators mainly focus on off-board navigation services and most have chosen hosted white-label or co-branded solutions. A few operators also sell on-board navigation kits for smartphones through their company stores and online shops.

However, in Europe, most mobile network operators have not yet announced or launched off-board navigation services. At the end of Q1 2006, less than 20 out of around 70 mobile operators in Western and Central Europe had launched off-board navigation services. These operators have a combined wireless customer base representing about one fifth of the total mobile subscriber base. In the US though, two out of four nationwide operators representing almost 50 percent of the total wireless customer base have launched navigation services.

Although the most attractive personal navigation segment for mobile operators is the offboard segment, operators have opportunities to gain revenues from the other segments as well. Potential revenues from the PND segment primarily derive from data traffic from content download. The on-board smartphone segment offers several revenue sources for operators, mainly from retailing and data traffic but possibly also from other services as smartphone

sales increase.

The Companies Mentioned inside the report include:

- Orange

- TeliaSonera

- Vodafone

- Verizon

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c37729

Source: Business Wire

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