GPS-enabled Smartphones to Rise at the Expense of Personal Navigators

Two years ago, it might be hard for people to believe GPS-equipped smartphones would replace Portable Navigation Devices (PNDs) in the worldwide navigation market. But now, it seems that this will no longer be a fantasy, as research firm iSuppli predicts that by 2014, the number of smartphones with built-in GPS functionality will finally surpass the number of standalone navigation devices.

For the moment, PNDs still lead the navigation industry with 114 million units predicted to be in use by the end of the year, while GPS smartphones will account for 57.8 million units. Nevertheless, according to iSuppli, there might be no room for PNDs anymore in five years: by 2014, the worldwide usage of navigation-enabled smartphones will surge to 305 million units, significantly overtaking the 128 millions of standalone navigators.

"The days of supremacy for the PND in the global navigation market are coming to an end," commented iSuppli.

The rise of smartphones as navigators are boosted by their ever-improving designs, which include better user interface, larger displays, higher internal flash memory, longer battery life, faster processors and built-in connectivity. All these features make them more suitable for use with navigation applications developed by third parties. On the other hand, the increasing availability of high-profile applications from TomTom and Navigon also helps to make smartphone more in line with standalone navigation devices. iSuppli says by 2011, virtually all smartphones will be equipped with GPS functionality.

As a matter of course, there are already many hot smartphones with turn-by-turn GPS navigation on the market, such as iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, Palm Treo 800w, BlackBerry Tour 9360 and T-Mobile myTouch 3G. Of these, the iPhone takes the lead by offering a total of eight navigation applications for iPhone users. iSuppli expects that the number of people using the iPhone alone for navigation will reach 28 million in 2012, up from 2 million in 2009.

Following this trend of development, smartphones will sport with features that make them comparable to mid-range PNDs. This means in the near future, all you need for travelling around is a handset armed with satellite mapping instead of a personal navigation device.

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