In what is anticipated to be the next step in the world of GPS technology, GSM phones will soon be embedded into GPS based cell phones. The technology is expected to hit the market by 2007 according to a report by ABI research. The report also predicted that 25 percent of WCDMA handsets would incorporate GPS by the end of 2008.
According to ABI principal analyst Alan Varghese the need to introduce GPS or Global positioning system in GSM and WCDMA is multi-fold. A major driving factor is the recent government directives such as the FCC-fixed E911 in the US, which specifies providing location technology for emergency services. Mr. Varghese also cites the increasing demand for location-based services (LBS) that offer fast accurate location fixes in all environments.
"The CDMA carriers who have had GPS integrated in their handsets since 2002 have been turning on location based services over the past year," he said. Additionally carriers need to find ways to boost the data revenue per subscriber and also recover their high licensing costs for 3G spectrum. He added that the CDMA carriers that had already got GPS integrated into their handsets in 2002 were turning on LBS over the past year.
Requests for qualifications and vendor selections and IC integration are all expected to be conducted during the coming year. In view of the increased demand the selling price is expected to drop to $2.70 by the end of 2008 and almost a quarter of all 3G phones will be GPS IC integrated the report said.
Competition is expected to intensify with Sirf [Technology Holdings Inc.] holding ground as the current market leader in the GPS IC space and GloNav ,Atmel/u-blox, Texas Instruments, Global Locate, u-Nav, and Nemerix all competing in the mobile phone segment .Other reports by Analyst Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts however remained more cautious.
