According to a new Berg Insight report - Mobile Maps & Navigation - ad-funded services are already being launched in several markets by various players such as mapping and directory providers, although it could be several years before partnerships are established that will lead to significant revenues.

While the PND segment continues to dominate the personal navigation market in Europe and the US, handset-based mapping and turn-by-turn navigation services are being discovered by an increasing number of handset owners.

Whereas handset-based local search, mapping and full turn-by-turn navigation services are largely separate services today, these are increasingly being integrated into one service with a common user interface.

In 2006, sales of onboard navigation software for smartphones increased to nearly 0.6 million units, with the European market accounting for the majority of shipments.

The year marked a breakthrough for off-board navigation services in North America, with an estimated 1.5 million subscriber additions boosting the total subscriber base to around 1.9 million. In the more fragmented European market, 300,000 subscriber additions almost doubled the subscriber base to 650,000.

By 2010, when mass-market GPS-equipped GSM/UMTS handsets are likely to become widely available, Berg Insight predicts that the European market will overtake the North American market, and by 2012 an estimated 28 million subscribers in Europe and 15 million in North America will use their handsets for navigation at least once per year.

Click here to see an overview of the report and the table of contents.

Published: September 2007
Pages: 100+
Report price:
Paper copy - €1,500
PDF (1-5 users) - €2,250
PDF (corporate licence) - €4,500