PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Sat nav vendors should stick to making GPS devices rather than moving into smartphone manufacturing, experts have said.
TomTom’s vice president of sales and marketing for the UK and Ireland, Damian Woodward, told PCR that the firm had no intention of putting out its own phone.
“If you look at how difficult it is for big, established mobile phone operators to bring phones to market, if it’s not your expertise then I suggest it’s even more difficult to bring to market and make it a profitable line for you,” he said.
Gartner’s research vice president, Thilo Koslowski, held a similar view, dismissing GPS vendor Garmin’s Nuvi range of mobiles as too little too late.
“That would have been a good move if the company had launched it a couple of years ago, before anybody else had done it. Now, because pretty much every new cell phone is capable of running a nav application, it’s a little bit late,” he said. “By launching its own phone, a PND manufacturer will have partnered with another hardware manufacturer to build it and it’s also having to compete with other smartphones that are out there. It’s a pretty tough market.”
Click here to read what else Woodward and Koslowski had to say about the sat nav market.
