Location Based Services from GPS

In a previous post, I made a reference to LBS (Location Based Services) on handsets having GPS capabilities. This post explores the market for such devices a little more. That these capabilities are inevitable goes without saying, but what is driving this trend now?
CDMA carriers have had GPS in their handsets all along. Qualcomm's gpsOne has provided the AGPS (Assisted GPS) hardware as a sort of freebie. Carriers are beginning to enable this only now. One report concludes that by the end of 2008, 25% of the WCDMA handsets will have GPS. A significant number of GSM phones will start to have this by next year end. The Nokia N95 phone uses GPS technology from TI. Advances in handset capabilities, better offerings from carriers and government regulations for emergency services (like E911) are the main driving factors.
GPS chip-makers can look forward to a good period of growth (although the CDMA market will still be controlled by Qualcomm). SiRF Technology Holdings (the leader), Atmel, Global Locate, GloNav, Nemerix, TI and u-Nav will be in ascendant mode.
Where will this leave the traditional navigation unit makers? It is already crowded - Garmin, Tom Tom, Dash Navigation, Magellan, Lowrance, HP, Alpine, Ares Digital and ... It is not a surprise that Philips decided to not to enter this bloodbath. In spite of a mad race to differentiate themselves with more and more meat (wireless capabilities, MP3 players, in-built satellite radio, contextual information on Points of Interest, etc), it is going to be rosy for only a short while before the consolidation starts.
But, Location Based Services themselves throw up lots of exciting possibilities for new companies and startups. ABI Research estimates that there will be upwards of 20 million subscribers for this by 2011. Watch this space.
Technorati Tags: ABI Research, AGPS, Alpine, Ares Digital Philips, Assisted GPS, Atmel, CDMA, Dash Navigation, E911, GPS, Garmin, GloNav, Global Locate, HP, LBS, Location Based Services, Lowrance, Magellan, Nemerix, Nokia N95, Qualcomm, SiRF Technology Holdings, TI, Tom Tom, WCDMA, gpsOne, u-Nav