According to a research report by the
Consumer Electronics Association
(CEA), GPS - Exploring Ownership
and Interest revealed an 80 percent
owner satisfaction rate, which was
strongly influenced by the ease of use
and display quality of the devices,
which are used primarily for navigation
assistance in a vehicle. While GPS
ownership is still relatively small
at 18 percent of online consumers,
the research demonstrates shipment
revenues nearly tripling between
2005 and 2006. Nearly 24% of
online consumers are planning to
purchase a GPS device within the
next year, spending an average of
$410 resulting in sales reaching $4.1
billion in 2007. The study shows that
33 percent of future GPS buyers are
interested in owning a cell phone
with a GPS. Rest of the other uses are
hiking 18%, walking16%, boating
14% biking 7%, running 6% and
flying 4% www.webwire.com
Navigation to become a focus
of China's car GPS market
CCID Consulting, the first Chinese
consulting firm listed in Hong Kong,
forecasts that "navigation" will
become a trend in China's car GPS
market. In 2006, China's automotive
electronics market grew upto RMB
86.76 billion, up 39% over 2005. In
2006, automotive electronics products
were upgraded, in particularly chassis
control systems. New car electronic
products such as GPS and TPMS also
gathered pace in their penetration. In
2006, 815,000 sets of GPS were sold
in China, generating sales revenues
of RMB 4.19 billion. Compared
with 2005, sales volume and sales
revenues grew 50.8% and 107.3%,
respectively. Starting from 2007,
China's car GPS market will enter a
brand new period of growth. Japanese
car-makers will continue to lead the
pre-installed market, with all high-end
Japanese cars and some new car models
to be installed with pre-installed
navigation GPS. www.sys-con.com
Taiwan to take up 50% global
market share for GPS
GPS manufactured by Taiwanese
companies are on course to take
up 50% of the global market
share, according to an analyst
at the Institute for Information
Industry. http://english.rti.org.tw
Fierce competition may send
GPS chip prices down 10-20%
Competition in the GPS chip supply
chain may send prices down by 10-
20% in the 2007. SiRF has come
under price pressure after TomTom
and Garmin were said to have
adopted GPS solutions from Global
Locate and MediaTek respectively.
Further pressure has also come from
improving relationships between
Mitac International (the parent
company of Mio Technology that
markets Mio-branded PNDs) and
GPS chip supplier Centrality, the
sources said. www.digitimes.com
China launches Compass
navigation satellite
China has
launched
"Compass"
navigational
system, which
is expected to
provide services
to customers
all over
China and neighboring countries
by 2008. The satellite system is
mainly designed for the country’s
economic development, providing navigation and positioning services in
transportation, meteorology, petroleum
prospecting, forest fire monitoring,
disaster forecast, telecommunications
and public security, among others. http://news.xinhuanet.com
Russia to expand Glonass
satellite group by year end
Russia will increase the number of
satellites in Glonass to 18 by the end of
2007, according to the head of Russia's
Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos).
Space Agency (Roskosmos).
A total of 9.88 billion rubles ($379.7
million) has been appropriated for
Glonass from the federal budget
in 2007, and 4.72 billion ($181.4
million) in 2006. A full orbital group
of 24 satellites will be ready for global
coverage by the end of 2009, but even
with 18 satellites in orbit it will be
able to start providing services for
military and civilian users, covering
Russian territory. www.gpsdaily.com
New device extends battery life
up to 90 days in GPS units
Tracking The World, USA, recently
released a hibernating battery
case for use in compact GPS
units that significantly conserves
battery power by using motion
detection extending battery life
up to 90 days. www.prlog.org/div>
Researchers find GPS is
impacted by solar radio burst
According to researchers at Cornell
University, solar radio bursts can
have a serious impact on the GPS and
other communication technologies
using radio waves. The findings were
announced in Washington, D.C., at
the first Space Weather Enterprise
Forum. www.prnewswire.com
GPS Photo Mapping, Google
Earth to deliver exploration reports
Waystar Inc. of Edmonton scouts
exploration locations and provides
reports with access routes and stream
crossings to be used by the heavy
seismic survey vehicles and crews
to reach the exploration areas. These
routes and crossings must be mapped in
advance with their locations pinpointed
in official exploration applications
to the Alberta government.While
scouting it takes photographs of every
stream crossing with a GPS-equipped
digital camera and downloading the
photos to a laptop computer with
GPS-Photo Link software, which
automatically correlates each photo
with the GPS-location where it was
taken. It has a built-in function to
export the photos to Google Earth. www.geospatialexperts.com
