GPS market to top 8 billion euros in Europe by 2012

A new report from Juniper Research estimates that revenues from portable navigation solutions, including both PNDs and software solutions, will exceed 8.3 billion euros in Western Europe by 2012.

PNDs have been one of the great consumer electronics success stories of the past 2 years, with product ranges from suppliers reporting revenue growth of 89% in 2006.

Revenues from PNDs are currently estimated to account for over 90% of the portable navigation market in Western Europe, and TomTom reports average selling price for PNDs as dropping from €464 in 2004 to €270 in 2006.

In Western Europe, Juniper Research expects the percentage of vehicles using PNDs to grow to 22% by 2012.

In a recent survey conducted on Pocket-lint, we discovered that 62% of our readership currently use some kind of satnav solution.

Juniper Research wans that "the tide could turn" for the GPS market in the next 2 to 3 years.

Author of the report, Bruce Gibson commented: "PND sales in Europe are booming at the moment, but it can’t last for ever".

"There are already signs of growing maturity in the earliest developed European markets, prices are continuing to fall and there is strong competition from original equipment in-vehicle navigation solutions and from software solutions for multipurpose devices, particularly mobile phones."