Earnings at Netherlands-based TomTom NV have fallen by 83% in the first quarter. which "suggests the market for stand-alone global-positioning systems is at a turning point," according to an AP report.
"What we saw for the first time is that selling prices fell, but volumes didn't improve enough to compensate," analyst Eric de Graaf of Petercam said after the results were reported Wednesday. "It's a signal the market is getting saturated."
The three leading suppliers, with 80% of the market, are TomTom, Garmin, and Taiwan's Mitac, which owns the Navman and Mio brands. The 2007 market comprised about 33.9 million units, "almost triple the 11.9 million sold in 2006". However, GPS is also going to become more common on mobile phones. The story says: "By 2010, Gartner estimates, 500 million cell phones capable of navigation will cell [sic] annually, compared to just 95 million pure navigation devices."
This is the same as the "most MP3 players will be mobile phones" argument.
Frankly, I can't imagine most car drivers trying to navigate using a mobile phone rather than a dedicated satnav device. On the other hand, navigation an obvious function to integrate into the car's standard dashboard, so I don't see much long term future for the stick-in market either.
