In-Stat: Cellular Navigation To Gain 5x

By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 7/16/2007

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — U.S. cellphone owners who subscribe to a cellular-phone-based navigation service on a regular basis will increase from 1.6 million in 2007 to 8.7 million by 2011, said research company In-Stat.

One reason for the projected gain is the relatively high price tags of personal navigation devices (PND), which are close to $200 at the low end of the market, said In-Stat principal analyst David Chamberlain.

In-Stat also surveyed more than 1,000 consumers and found that half would prefer to purchase a PND rather than subscribe to a handset navigation service. Only 17 percent said they wanted to use handset navigation, but the remaining 33 percent said they will probably use both handset navigation and a PND.

In-Stat also found that very few consumers could correctly identify whether their carrier offered handset navigation. "So the mobile carriers are really the ones that need to be promoting this and haven't," noted Chamberlain.