Taipei, Taiwan — GPS maker Mio Technology and Qualcomm today announced the joint development of cellular-connected personal navigation devices (PNDs).
The new PNDs will use Qualcomms’ QST1100 chipset for cellular connections to real-time traffic updates, voice-call capabilities and other functions.
“Mio is proud to be one of the first companies to offer the connectivity of cellular networks to PND users, making information access seamless and reliable,” said Samuel Wang, president of Mio.
Mio said it will offer consumers a PND that goes beyond traditional point-to-point navigation, and will allow search capabilities. It did not specify exact search or other capabilities.
Mio is ranked the fourth leading PND maker in the United States behind Garmin, TomTom and Magellan, according to The NPD Group.
The QST1100 is the first chipset to integrate GPS, cellular connectivity and application processing, said Qualcomm.
