Date: 31st Aug 2010

ABI: Global telematics users to reach 211million by 2015

ABI Research has forecasted a growth from 37 million telematics users in 2010 to over 211 million in 2015. This growth is believed to be due to the growing awareness of their many benefits related to safety, security, maintenance, convenience, infotainment, and cost savings.

ABI Research practice director Dominique Bonte comments: "Telematics drivers are diverse, ranging from regulation in Europe (eCall) and legislation in Brazil (SVT) to cheaper telematics connectivity, hardware, software, and services. However, barriers remain: privacy concerns have slowed down the legislation process in Brazil, and industry fragmentation and confusion about business models and service architectures continue to haunt the automotive ecosystem."

ABI Research also predicts that the direct revenue growth in telematics will be slower even while the number of subscribers grow in the coming years. This is due to a large no.of free non-embedded, hybrid and phone-based solutions such as Ford SYNC.

Many automotive OEMs such as General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and BMW are eager to embrace the smartphone as a connected vehicle remote control for door unlock and engine start, remote diagnostics such as electrical vehicle battery status, or for eCall and bCall services. Solutions such as Continental's Android-based AutoLinQ take this approach one step further by turning embedded systems into open platforms accessible to third party software developers hoping to break the automotive paradigms of long development cycles, high costs and lagging innovation