| GPS in all mobile devices by 2013? |
Jan. 17, 2008
 Advances in GPS chipset development will allow integration of GPS in every mobile device within five years, claims a newly released report. Low cost, GPS modernization, and new Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) will expand the market to 900 million units by 2013, ABI Research forecasts.
In-car navigation will remain the most important application of GPS technology, ABI says, but the use of GPS in many other consumer, business, and industrial environments is expected to grow. Examples include telematics and asset tracking, digital cameras with automatic geo-tagging, and consumer devices with location-based social networking features.
Lower pricing from GPS chip vendors mentioned in the report -- such as Broadcom, SiRF, and u-blox, along with many others -- will be a major factor in market expansion, according to ABI. But, so will improved availability, reliability, and precision of GPS and other GNSS systems, such as China's Beidou (Big Dipper), the EU's Galileo, and Russia's GLONASS.
ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte says, "Personal Navigation Devices for in-car use will be increasingly complemented by converged solutions based on GPS-enabled handsets for pedestrian navigation and location based services (LBS)." However, she adds, GNSS technologies will have to be combined with other positioning solutions, such as assisted GPS, dead reckoning, and WiFi, to address the issue of indoor coverage.
For example, the WiFi positioning system (WPS) from Skyhook Wireless works with Windows Mobile and was adopted earlier this week by Apple, via a firmware revision to its iPhone. Even without GPS hardware, Skyhook-enabled phones can calculate their positions by triangulation using a database of known cellular towers and WiFi access points.
Marine, avionics, military and surveying applications will also require supplementary technologies, such as laser or sonar, for improved precision and coverage. Therefore, specialists such as Garmin and Trimble will continue to successfully develop products for a wide range of applications and segments, Bonte says.
Availability
The 120-page report, "Global Navigation Satellite Positioning Solutions," provides detailed descriptions of products, market players, trends, drivers, and barriers, according to ABI. It also describes all GNSS systems, including GPS and its high-precision variants, such as Differential GPS, Real Time Kinematic (RTK), and augmentation systems. The report concludes with sales forecasts for each region and market segment, according to the company.
More information is available from the ABI Research website, here.
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