09 May 2008

GPS Handset Sales Set For A Boost

The GPS enabled handset market is set for a boost as the technology takes off, with 550 million devices expected to ship by 2012, according to a report.

“While most CDMA handsets are already GPS-enabled and GPS is set to become a standard feature in GSM smartphones, GSM feature phones are next on the agenda to be equipped with GPS technology,“ explained Dominic Bonte, principal analyst for ABI Research which carried out the report. “GPS chipset vendors increasingly target handsets, looking for new markets and spurred on by the recent dramatic growth of personal navigation devices.”

However, as GPS begins to penetrate lower-end phones, the cost, power consumption, and footprint of GPS chipsets will have to be further reduced. This will be made possible by single chipset technology and the emergence in 2009 of combination chips integrating GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi all on one die, the report said.

But the technology isn’t without its hurdles. The thorny issue of indoor GPS coverage still has to be addressed. Network-assisted A-GPS and high-sensitivity GPS-receivers are becoming key requirements to reduce the time necessary to acquire fixes and to improve location accuracy.