ABI Research: Consumer navigation market to reach 267 million shipments by 2015

A new ABI Research study forecasts that the global market for consumer navigation devices, services and systems will triple between 2010 and 2015, representing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 25% over the next five years.

"The consumer navigation space continues to experience a great deal of evolution," says Dominique Bonte, practice director for telematics and navigation at ABI Research. "First, the impact of handset-based navigation services cannot be overstated. The free services being offered by Google, Nokia, and Microsoft combined with the growth of other navigation services available on mobile applications stores, are fostering this growth."

This market transformation is having an effect on the industry as a whole. Traditional personal navigation device vendors are experiencing increased pressures on their bottom lines as they work to expand their presence. Furthermore, all ecosystem players must also find ways to compete with free offerings, differentiate their solutions, and meet the evolving needs of the consumer.

Bonte also notes, "Other key trends we are seeing include increased multimedia functionality in personal navigation devices and in car navigation systems, and more integration of location-oriented services such as social networking and local search. More advanced features such as real-time traffic updates, speech recognition, multi-mode navigation and eco-routing are also being incorporated into services and devices."