The last year has seen an increase in demand for consumer navigation devices with interest in the technology set to grow over the next new months, a new report has claimed.
Technology intelligence firm IDC said that that the falling cost of buying a device and greater public awareness had combined to produce a boom in sales of items equipped with global positioning system (GPS) technology, with portable navigation devices representing 62 per cent of total sales.
Research manager at IDC, Diana Hwang, said: “It’s clear that services will become an increasingly important part of the navigation picture going forward as these devices compete with other consumer devices such as mobile phones.” IDC also predicted that fitness products that integrated GPS would become more popular and that sales of satellite navigation systems for vehicles would also remain strong, provided manufacturers worked with car companies to keep costs down.
In recent months, companies have launched a number of features in an effort to persuade consumers to pick their product in an increasingly crowded market, with BMW and Google partnering to allow drivers to send data from Google Maps to their in-car device and Sony launching new widescreen systems for vehicles.
