A Billion GPS Chips Expected To Ship In 2013

by GPS News Staff Writers, London, UK
March 20, 2008

Satellite-based navigation is a very popular technology with consumers, and the upsurge in purchases of GPS (Global Positioning System) devices is fuelling a similar growth in the market for GPS receiver chipsets. A new study from ABI Research forecasts GPS IC shipments to reach one billion annually in 2013. Average Selling Prices (ASPs) will continue to fall, but the effect on vendors' revenue streams will be more than offset by this strong growth in volume.

Industry analyst Jamie Moss comments, "Three factors will intersect to shape the future of the GPS IC market. The average price of the chipset will fall to $3.50 or below by the end of 2008, permitting a true mass market adoption. This fall in ASP is driven by manufacturers' goal of producing receivers that can be included in lower-margin devices such as mobile phones: handset-based GPS will be critical to strong market penetration.

"The benefits will filter down to more traditional GPS uses such as in-car navigation. Meanwhile, we're seeing growing numbers of acquisitions: large chip manufacturers buying up specialist fabless GPS IC vendors in order to include their technologies in solutions that combine GPS with varied wireless RF product offerings, especially Bluetooth."

Significant examples of such acquisitions in the second half of 2007 include Global Locate, acquired by Broadcom; GloNav by NXP; and u-Nav by Atheros. ...

http://www.gpsdaily.com/reports/A_Billion_GPS_Chips_Expected_To_Ship_In_2013_999.html