Share of Proprietary RF in Stolen Vehicle Tracking Systems to Drop to 10% by 2018, Prompting New Ecosystem Alliances

While the total number of stolen vehicle tracking solutions in use globally will increase from 35.5 million in 2013 to 143 million in 2018, the share of proprietary RF based systems will decrease from 24% in 2013 to 10% in 2018.

“Stolen vehicle tracking, recovery, slow down or immobilization has been offered by vendors such as GM-OnStar for more than a decade as a factory installed solution. It has also seen success as an aftermarket solution for high-end vehicles with LoJack's RF-based approach positioned as a premium offer providing deep indoor coverage allowing recovery rates of more than 90%. As embedded factory-installed telematics technology and advanced indoor location become more widespread, aftermarket solutions will gradually become less popular, and in its wake, RF will lose overall market share. How ever, in regions like the US and South Africa RF will continue to be used respectively as a premium technology for high-end vehicles and as a reliable and robust technology to address rampant vehicle theft,” says VP and practice director Dominique Bonte.

This disruptive trend is prompting established RF SVT players to shift their strategies. Market leader LoJack has entered into a partnership with TomTom aimed at jointly selling premium SVT and fleet management services through LoJack’s dealer channels. At the same time LoJack is transitioning to pre-install business and recurring revenue models leveraging its privileged law enforcement relationships as well as its premium brand image as sustainable competitive advantages. DigiCore has started combining the unique characteristics of respectively RF and cellular/GNSS technologies providing continuous, deep-indoor location tracking.

ABI Research’s new “Stolen Vehicle Tracking: Is There a Future for RF Technology?” study covers stolen vehicle tracking market trends and subscriber forecasts per region and type. It includes a comparison of stolen vehicle tracking technologies, an assessment of the future of RF and a SWOT analysis and case study of market leader LoJack. The study is part of the Safety and Security Telematics Research Service.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.