Monday, March 23, 2009
In today's stressed economic market, most industry segments would be overjoyed with the prospect of 15% year-over-year growth for 2009, but for GPS ICs, the growth rate of this hot-ticket item is somewhat disappointing.
A 15% growth rate is slower than the year-on-year growth shown in 2007 and 2008 and reflects the softness in demand for consumer devices, according to a recent ABI Research report.
"The number of GPS semiconductors (ICs) shipped worldwide in 2008 was 302 million," said George Perros, senior analyst at ABI Research. In 2007, the growth rate for GPS ICs used in Garmins, Tom Toms, cell phones, and military smart phones stood at around 20%, but even Nokia recently announced layoffs and cutbacks in the cell phone industry due to falling demand, and this lack of sales affects the GPS market."
Though GPS shipments are expected to grow 15% in 2009, in an opposite and unequal trend, GPS chipset unit prices are declining faster than the growth in units sold.
"Chipset prices are falling roughly 20% in 2009, and the market will hold at just under $1 billion in revenue," Perros said.
ABI forecasted unit growth will continue in 2010 and beyond spurred by growth in handsets, personal navigation devices, and emerging markets such as netbooks. Other growth areas for GPS ICs include machine control, timing and synchronization, and commercial fleet telematics.
The companies with the highest level of GPS IC shipments at present are Qualcomm and SiRF.
By: DocMemory
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