Take a look at the iSuppli chart above and you’ll quickly realize that portable navigation devices may be headed the way of the deadpool. Last year PND’s accounted for about half of all shipped navigation devices, including in-dash GPS systems, smartphones with integrated GPS and plain ol’ mobile phones with E911 services and add-on navigation services.
By the year 2013 PND’s will only account for a measly 23% of shipments while the mobile phone market will acount for about 73%.
This isn’t at all surprising given the developments of the past year, especially with the 3G iPhone and possibly Android completely changing the world of navigation, but we’re not so sure in-dash systems will play such a small part in things over the next few years.
However it depends how you define in-dash system. While in-dash GPS systems used solely for navigation will probably head for dead, smart systems built into cars that combine GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and all the other features required to build a connected vehicle will undoubtedly increase especially as wireless technology continues to advance.
We do agree that many PND manufacturers we’re familiar with today will disappear over the next couple of years, and big names such as Garmin might increase their focus on software development in order to increase their profit margins. The portable navigation device isn’t dead yet though and it’ll be interesting to see how they evolve over the next few years in order to survive.
via cellularnews
