Global Off-board Navigation Software Matrix

This vendor matrix provides an assessment of navigation software solution vendors offering web-based routing and navigation software with Java or Brew running on a feature phone that communicates with a server, downloads maps and directions, and displays them on the phone’s screen. The assessment is based on a limited number of criteria related to excellence in both implementation and innovation as outlined below:

Implementation

• Market share - Overall share of installed base and sales market share
• Carrier agreements - Number and importance of partnerships with carriers
• Handset manufacturer agreements - Number and importance of partnerships with handset manufacturers
• Market positioning - Quality and relevance of communication, branding and marketing campaigns, and programs
• Resource efficiency - Availability of bandwidth and memory saving features; hybrid mode
• Mobile platform coverage - Number of supported mobile platforms, operating systems, and handset models
• Organizational health - Financial and overall organizational strength
• Global coverage - Global presence in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and developing regions
• Quality and reliability - Consistency of the navigation experience
• Customization - Quality and timeliness of white label implementation flexibility

• Navigation features - Number and relevance of options, such as routing options, navigation modes, map display modes, etc.
• Speech technology - Availability of speech recognition and text-to-speech functionality
• Local search - Local search, premium content, and local partnerships
• Traffic information - Availability of real-time traffic information at no additional cost
• Business model/pricing options - Number and relevance of pricing options
• Open APIs - Flexibility to interface with other applications

Rankings

After individual scores are established for Innovation and Implementation using the above criteria, an overall company score is established using the Root Mean Square (RMS) method:

The resulting overall scores are then ranked and used for percentile comparisons.

The RMS method, in comparison with a straight summation or average of individual innovation and implementation values, rewards companies for standout performance.

For example, using this method a company with an innovation score of 9 and an implementation score of 1 would score considerably higher than a company with a score of 5 in both areas, despite the mean score being the same. ABI Research believes this is appropriate as the goal of these matrices is to highlight those companies that stand out from the others.