- Trish Whelan
Car navigation a hard sell
24 June 2003: Despite the rapid growth of car navigation solutions readily available on the market today, less than one in five car owners currently owns a navigation system according to a report to be published by Berlin based market research firm Metrinomics.
The report, based on interviews with members of the company’s 11,000 strong global panel, also finds that less than 25 per cent of those still without navigation intend to buy any kind of system within the next twelve months. Value for money also proves to be a sticking point for potential users: eight out of ten first time buyers are not prepared to spend more than around E400.
In what is an extremely fragmented market, GPS provider Garmin is specified as current provider by 24 per cent of current navigation users, followed by Magellan (8.1 per cent) and Blaupunkt (5.4 per cent) respectively.
Mobile operators hoping to cash in their location based service chips by delivering navigation services will be disappointed to discover that users and non-users alike are more interested in basic route finding and orientation features than they are in knowing their destination’s best bars, clubs and restaurants.
Only 3 per cent of current navigation owners expressly use navigation for location based purposes compared with 55 per cent who primarily use navigation for route planning purposes.
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