A Rough Road Ahead for PNDs
Friday, May 15th, 2009
By Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence
This month brought two promising moves in the evolution of connected consumer electronics. Amazon announced the Kindle DX, which it believes will signal a new chapter in textbook and newspaper distribution. And AT&T announced that it would tap Jasper Wireless as its preferred embedded solution to hasten the development of connected consumer electronics or what the carrier calls “emerging devices” (you know, like a camera).
But there was also a sign of the challenges connected products face in the marketplace as Navigon announced that it would withdraw from the portable navigation device business in North America. As recently as CES, I had held Navigon up as an example of success in PNDs. A late entrant to the category, Navigon leveraged free live traffic updates (via FM radio) to help build volume and market share in a consolidated category. But it appears as though enough consumers weren’t trading up enough to justify the subsidization of the service. According to NPD’s retail tracking service, March unit sales were flat and revenue declined, with the average selling price dropping 26 percent year-over-year.
As the ill-fated Dash Express first showed, two-way wireless connectivity enhances the utility and usefulness of PND — the rub is that it’s the same two-way wireless data capability integrated into cell phones. In March, sales of cell phones with integrated GPS capability passed 60 percent for the first time, according to NPD’s Mobile Phone Track. Indeed, Navigon says it intends to focus its North American efforts on developing navigation software for cell phones. And with version 3.0 of its operating system, the iPhone will support turn-by-turn navigation on its large 3.5″ touchscreen, a screen size competitive with some of the best-selling PNDs on the market. The iPhone’s two-way connectivity will, in the eyes of many, make it a better PND than the best PNDs, just as it has become a better iPod than even the iPod touch.
Tags: cell phones, PND
Consumer Technology, Wireless | Ross Rubin, Executive Director, NPD Connected Intelligence | 
May 15, 2009 12:12 pm
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