LONDON — The markets for chips focusing on the Wi-Fi and GPS navigation and location technology sectors could defy the semiconductor downturn during the year, according to two separate reports.
IMS (Wellingborough, England) suggests the GPS market will grow by over $200 million over the next 12 months.
"In 2009 GPS will begin to penetrate into a range of vertical markets, such as cameras, laptops, sporting equipment and first responder radios. This will help to drive shipment growth of over 25 percent year-on-year," according to IMS Research analyst, Tom Arran.
The market researchers suggest 2009 will be a reasonable but not booming year for GPS shipments, but that the sector will have a 21.2 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) between 2008 and 2013.
"Location is emerging as a key component of future offerings from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Intel, Mozilla and Ericsson. This will enable a host of new services across all key vertical markets, which in turn will further drive the uptake of GPS," said Arran.
However, he notes there are numerous challenges ahead and the GPS market will need to mature before it breaks the 500 million units per year barrier.
One of the main issues, he warns, is poor performance in challenging environments. "GPS manufacturers need to start seriously considering hybrid location in their offering," said Arran.
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