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| Friday, 23 January 2009 | |
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Demand for GPS devices buoyant despite downturn…
Although the 2009 outlook for many semiconductor manufacturers is worsening by the day, and share prices have taken a severe hit with millions shaved from companies’ market capital over the last 12 months, IMS Research projects the Global Positioning System (GPS) market represents one of the few areas of growth in 2009. In a new report, ‘WW Market for GPS/GNSS in Portable Devices’, the GPS market is forecast to increase by over US$200mn between 2008 and 2009. “2008 was the breakout year for GPS in mobile phones. In 2009 GPS will begin to penetrate into a range of vertical markets, such as cameras, laptops, UMPCs, sporting equipment and first responder radios,” predicts IMS Research analyst Tom Arran. “This will help to drive shipment growth of over 25% YoY”. “OEMs in these markets can use GPS to differentiate their product, while also drive new service revenue streams. Furthermore, location is emerging as a key component of future offerings from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Intel, Mozilla and Ericsson,” continues Despite a significant increase in revenue in 2009, IMS Research believes that the best is yet to come. “There is still a lot of untapped potential and the GPS market needs to mature before breaking the 500mn units per year barrier. One of the more general issues is poor performance in challenging environments. GPS manufacturers need to start seriously considering hybrid location in their offering. The report forecasts the uptake of WLAN location in each of these markets, both as a competitive and complementary technology.” “The GPS market remains competitive, despite a number of acquisitions by large semiconductor companies. Standalone GPS manufacturers will need to specialise to monetise, as each vertical market requires different hardware considerations. By developing a diverse portfolio of solutions tailored to specific markets, they can spread risk across a number of OEMs in different vertical markets - ideal in troublesome times,” concludes Place in the sun Also optimistic about the market prospects of GPS is ABI Research. That company’s new analysis, ‘GPS-enabled Handsets’, predicts that shipments of GPS-enabled mobile phones will hit a speed-bump in 2009, but will still manage to post year-to-year unit growth through the current economic downturn. ABI believes that while global handset shipments are expected to drop by 4% to 5% in 2009, GPS-enabled phones will climb to 240mn units, an increase of 6.4% over 2008. This performance will be driven by the ongoing demand for feature-rich Smartphones. Although slowing slightly in 2009, demand for smartphones, a group that includes the Apple iPhone 3G, RIM’s BlackBerry devices, and Nokia N series phones among a growing list, will increase at an average annual unit shipment rate of 19% through 2014. During the period, GPS chipsets will continue to penetrate this segment; nine of every ten Smartphones will contain GPS ICs in 2014, compared with one in three in 2008. “Falling component prices and increasing consumer awareness of handset location capabilities will keep demand for GPS-enabled phones healthy, in spite of the slumping global economic picture,” says senior analyst George Perros. Other factors that will continue the trend toward the inclusion of GPS functionality in handsets include the spread of open source operating systems, such as Google’s Android, which provide application-specific interfaces (APIs) that allow software developers to create location-based content for mobile devices, and the continuing emergence of navigation and map-based applications for handsets. “As the quality of positioning technology in handsets improves and the cost of including it declines, GPS location technology will approach the status of a standard device feature,” concludes Perros. “We are approaching the point where location awareness will be synonymous with smart devices, a point where personal navigation, social spatial knowledge, and location-specific contextual information will be assumed handset capabilities.” John Williamson |
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