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Worldwide mobile navigation device market more than doubles
- Garmin and TomTom neck and neck as global leaders in Q2 2007
Reading, UK - Monday, 20 August 2007
For immediate release
- 7.4 million mobile navigation devices shipped in Q2 2007, up
116% on Q2 2006
- Over 90% of these were PNDs (dedicated Portable Navigation
Devices)
- Converged devices, such as smart phones, took 6% of the total
market
- The US share of the market rose to a new peak of 26%, EMEA
represented 60%
- Garmin narrowly took the number one spot from TomTom, for the
first time in two years
- Garmin and TomTom both increased their share year-on-year and
sequentially
Highlights from the Canalys Q2 2007 global mobile navigation
research
After two years at the top by several percentage points, TomTom
was narrowly overtaken by Garmin as the leader in the global mobile
navigation device market in Q2 2007, according to the latest
estimates from analyst firm Canalys. The Canalys figures include all
mobile devices used for turn-by-turn road navigation with built-in
GPS and on-board software, including not only PNDs (Portable
Navigation Devices), such as the TomTom GO range and Garmin nüvi,
but also smart phones, handhelds and other similar classes of
device. Total device shipments for the quarter stood at 7.4 million,
up 116% on the same quarter one year ago and almost 2 million above
last quarter’s figure.
“It is difficult to point to another part of the high-tech
industry that is so dynamic and growing as fast as the navigation
sector,” said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and principal analyst. “With
the current market growth, the still huge untapped potential, rapid
hardware and software development, and the number of players vying
for a share, you can understand why there has been so much merger
and acquisition activity and interest in this business recently.”
The leading players in hardware, software and mapping will
assemble for the annual Canalys Navigation Forum in Barcelona, Spain
in a few weeks time – an event that has quickly become the key
global discussion and networking forum for this fast-moving
industry. Europe still represents the majority of device shipments –
around 60% in Q2 2007, according to Canalys – with healthy growth of
82% on the figure of a year earlier. But rapid growth in the US of
almost 300% year-on-year means that European vendors are now
starting to feel the impact of competition from North America. This
competition is illustrated by Garmin narrowly taking the global
market lead in Q2, its 25% share putting it less than one percentage
point ahead of TomTom. This is the first time someone other than
TomTom has led the worldwide market since Q1 2005. North America now
represents more than a quarter of global shipments, up from just 15%
a year ago according to the Canalys figures.
Globally, Garmin’s and TomTom’s shipments grew faster than the
market average, with both vendors increasing their market shares
from a year ago and from last quarter. Third-placed Mio Technology
also saw a big rise, with shipments increasing 135% year-on-year.
All three vendors saw substantial gains in the Asia-Pacific and EMEA
(Europe, Middle East & Africa) regions as well as in North America.
But it was fourth-placed Magellan that saw the biggest jump among
the market leaders, enjoying a year-on-year climb of 548% worldwide,
again largely due to massive growth in the US where it became the
number two vendor behind Garmin.
“The landscape of the navigation industry is changing before our
eyes,” Jones added. “The ownership and geographic expansion of
mapping data is of course fundamental to the development of the
sector, but you also have technological and business model changes
going on in the background. Nokia is already starting to make its
presence felt with its GPS-enabled handsets, such as the N95, and
its navigation solution packages. It is already poised just outside
the top five after relatively little time in the market. But its
future global success will depend a lot on cracking the US market in
a way it has not managed to in the past and on delivering solutions
that strike a chord with pedestrians as well as drivers. Its recent
initiatives around A-GPS are clearly focused on delivering the kind
of improved user experience that could put its devices into the
hands of completely new types of navigation user.”
While converged devices, such as Nokia’s smart phones, represent
only 6% of mobile navigation device shipments today they do have the
potential to disrupt the market for the PND vendors who currently
account for 90% of the unit volume. PND vendors are moving into
connected devices themselves, to facilitate the upload of
user-generated location content, map updates, traffic information,
etc. But moving to connected devices brings lots of challenges
around channels and overcoming users’ reluctance to subscribe to
data services. There is likely to be more convergence between the
mobile phone and navigation industries over the coming year. “If you
look at the stir Apple created in the mobile phone business with the
iPhone, it is not hard to imagine a leading brand trying something
similar in the navigation/phone crossover space, with a new approach
in design and user interface. The fact that the US market is taking
off and the volumes are becoming substantial means that more
companies are sitting up and looking at the opportunities,” Jones
said.
Many European mobile operators have been dragging their heels on
the development of location-based services (LBS) and navigation
propositions. Canalys expects that, as more mobile handset vendors
get heavily involved in the GPS navigation market, and PND vendors
start to realise the benefits of connected devices, operators will
lose even more control. “It will be the faster moving and more
innovative navigation and Internet companies that drive LBS,” Jones
added. “The problem with focusing on building a walled garden is
that you don’t see how the landscape on the other side of the wall
has changed, until it overruns you.”
The future of the navigation industry will be discussed in depth
at the Canalys Navigation Forum, which takes place in Barcelona from
the 10th to the 12th of September 2007. Places are still available,
but immediate booking is strongly advised to avoid disappointment.
More
information...
About the Mobile Navigation Analysis service
The shipment estimates discussed in this release come from the
market-leading Canalys Mobile Navigation Analysis service. Clients
of the service receive detailed quarterly shipment databases for the
navigation hardware and software markets, regular reports addressing
key issues for the sector, trends presentations and webcasts,
forecasts and other supporting research databases, and direct access
to the Canalys analysts to help them address their particular
business issues.
More
information...
Analyst photos
Photographs of the analyst(s) quoted in this
release are available in the biography
section and may be re-used by the press to accompany a relevant
article.
About Canalys
Canalys specialises in delivering high quality market data,
analysis and advice to the world’s leading technology vendors. It is
recognised as a key provider of continuous advisory services and
confidential custom projects for marketing managers and strategists
within blue-chip IT, telecoms, navigation and consumer electronics
companies. It has unrivalled expertise in European routes to market
for all kinds of high technology products and services in the
consumer, SMB and large enterprise segments, and provides worldwide
market data and trends analysis.
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