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Navigation Highlights at CeBIT 2008
Author: Dominique Bonte, Principal Analyst, Telematics & Navigation
Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:36:08 EDT
Navigation was one of the main themes of CeBIT 2008 with all major navigation players concentrated in two halls. While most companies now prefer to reserve their major product announcements for the Mobile World Congress, CES or CTIA there were still some new product releases to be seen. TomTom showcased its new IQ Routes technology based on average road speeds based on real measurements collected by TomTom users resulting in faster routes and more accurate travel time prediction. Garmin was showing its Mobile PC solution which consists of navigation software and the Garmin GPS 20x sensor with USB connection. It also launched the low-end nüvi 2x5 product range offering photo navigation and dynamic MSN content. NAVIGON showcased its FreshMaps service which provides up to 12 downloadable map and POI upgrades over a three-year period. u-blox demonstrated how its hybrid GPS/Galileo receiver could track the (only) Galileo satellite while it was passing over CeBIT. The trend of integrating DVB-T mobile TV into PNDs was confirmed by products from Globalsat. While consumer navigation solutions such as PNDs and handset-based navigation software were catching most of the attention, many of the smaller stands were focusing on vehicle and people tracking solutions with a high proportion of Taiwanese and Chinese companies. Telematics is clearly gaining momentum. US-companies were well represented with players such as Magellan, Garmin, deCarta and Trimble.
However, a big shadow is hanging over CeBIT. While it remains the biggest global ICT event with close to half a million visitors, the trend of the past years of increasingly becoming a consumer event seems to be confirmed. As a consequence many companies are already staying away, with more to follow as evidenced by comments collected at some of the stands. The lack of professional, business-related contacts no longer justifies their presence.
However, the real highlight was the Navigation Day @ CeBIT 2008 conference organized by Telematics Update which mobilized a large part of the navigation ecosystem. Via alternating presentations and panel sessions a wide range of current navigation topics were addressed in a pleasant and interactive way. Connected navigation, probe traffic data, mobile phone navigation, speech technology, user generated maps, location-based advertising and mobile social networking were discussed by the main navigation players such as TomTom, Tele Atlas, Jentro, deCarta, Mio, Nokia, Nuance, Garmin, ATX and NAVTEQ. There was almost unanimous consensus among the major players that connected navigation is the way forward regardless of form factor or region. There was also a degree of realism to be heard in many presentations. While progress has been made, real-time traffic still suffers from latency and quality problems. Some content providers warned against providing content for free as it almost always has an inherent cost associated to it. This will create the wrong perception with consumers and ultimately destroy the content business case. As is typical for this kind of event, The Navigation Day @ CeBIT 2008 was also an excellent networking opportunity.
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