Low Cost and Free Navigation: An Inevitable Trend?

Author: Dominique Bonte, Vice President and Group Director, Telematics and M2M

Published: 05 Jun 2009

After more than a decade of location technology, turn-by-turn navigation remains the most well-known application. More importantly, it is one that users are prepared to purchase. Up until now, navigation has maintained its position as a premium service. This is about to change, however, driven by increasing levels of competition as navigation is adopted by the mass market. Free, ad-funded handset-based navigation has made its appearance in Europe, PNDs are now available for less than $100, and in-dash navigation is breaking through the €500 barrier in Europe. The recent economic downturn will only accelerate this trend. How will this development affect the location industry?

The full text of this Insight is available to subscribers of the Telematics Research Service and the Location Platforms and Enablers Research Service and the Connected Car Research Service and the Commercial Telematics Research Service.

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