ABI Research Finds China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea Charting Different Nav Courses

SINGAPORE--Aug. 21, 2006--Differing conditions in China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea mean that each country's automotive navigation market shows different development patterns, but a new study from ABI Research indicates that all will show strong growth, driven by keen competition to support new functions.

The study, "The Asia-Pacific Market for Navigation Devices" (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/market_research/ANAV), analyzes the industry and the positions of the leading players in Asia by focusing on key manufacturers, services and applications, critical industry associations, and the level of government involvement.

Japan, with its government initiatives such as ITS, leads the world in terms of navigation technology and mature market structure. According to ABI Research analyst Andy Bae, "By 2012, the Japanese in-vehicle navigation market will grow by an 8% CAGR. The OEM market will gradually dominate in Japan, with a higher growth rate than aftermarket products."

In South Korea, with its nationwide CDMA network and highly penetrated mobile devices, aftermarket operators (mobile operators) are growing faster than OEM market service operators. The most distinctive trend in South Korea is convergence. Most vehicle electronics companies are unveiling convergence products, for example, navigation + DMB + PMP + MP3.

"DMBigation (navigation terminal supporting DMB) will be a key growth driver in South Korea," notes Bae. "Greater participation by major CE vendors such as Samsung, and small and medium-sized vendors for MP3, will boost sales and competition. The growth rate in South Korea will be approximately 30% by 2012. GPS-enabled handheld devices will outpace traditional in-dash navigation products with a 34% CAGR."

From China, analyst Junmei He reports that although OEM navigation systems led in terms of shipments in 2005, handset-based navigation systems will take the lead in 2006 as result of navigation services launched by China Unicom, and the release of GPS-enabled smart handsets.

She expects the mainland Chinese market to experience strong growth from 2006 to 2011. The Olympic Games, decreasing prices, improving digital map quality, and the deployment of the 3G network will combine to heat up the market. "From 2005 to 2011, handset based navigation devices will achieve a growth rate of 139% CAGR , while that of PNAV devices is expected to reach 102% and that of OEM navigation systems 48%," says He.

Taiwanese ODM players will continue to play an important role in the handheld navigation market, and the CAGR from 2005 to 2011 will be 29%.

The new ABI Research study forms part of the firm's Automotive Infotainment Research Service (http://www.abiresearch.com/products/service/ Automotive_Infotainment_Research_Service) (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.).

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations supporting annual research programs, intelligence services and market reports in broadband and multimedia, RFID and M2M, wireless connectivity, mobile wireless, transportation and emerging technologies. For information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.