Panasonic is leaving the European sat-nav market behind, reports Register Hardware. With rapidly falling PND prices coupled with a flagging economy, the company behind the Strada sat-nav line feels serving the European market is no longer benefiting its bottom line. TomTom, based in the Netherlands, is the leading sat-nav provider in Europe at the moment and Garmin has been working hard to grab market share in the territory.
Panasonic, not a dedicated sat-nav maker, likely is seeing much better returns in the home entertainment sector thanks to an HDTV sales boom over the past year. While the company hasn’t officially announced a European pull-out, Register Hardware says it’ll focus on manufacturing in-car entertainment systems which will be sold to vehicle makers rather than end consumers.
