NAVTEQ reveals 2010 research results on the state of navigation

NAVTEQ, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, is sharing insights gleaned over the course of the past year to provide a state of the industry perspective on consumer use of navigation. Conducted on an annual basis, NAVTEQ’s tracking study assesses user interaction across all sectors of navigation including in-vehicle systems, portable devices and mobile/smartphone applications. In 2010, the study was conducted in 13 countries in total including Brazil, China, Russia and the United Kingdom.

Highlights of the research results include:

1. In most countries studied, consumer experience with navigation still increased from 2009 levels, having slowed somewhat to single versus double digit growth.
2. Increased experience with navigation in Europe: For Europe, mature navigation markets all show consumer experience with navigation at over 50%, with Germany, France and Italy approaching 60%. The number of respondents reporting experience with navigation grew 3-6 percentage points, with that growth coming from consumers who were only “familiar” with navigation the year prior (note 2010 is the first year in which Italy was surveyed). In Russia, which is at an earlier stage in the market cycle, consumer experience with navigation has not yet passed 40%.
3. The study shows use of mobile/smartphone navigation tends to follow navigation market maturity
4. “Regular” use of mobile/smartphone navigation (at least 1-2 times per week) follows the same pattern, again tending to trend somewhat higher in emerging markets

Consumers continue to most frequently use in-car navigation systems, followed by PNDs and mobile/smartphone devices. This is reflected in Europe:

1. With the use of in-car navigation, Russia shows the highest number of regular users at 71%, followed by the United Kingdom at 62%.
2. 65% of respondents in Russia regularly use portable navigation devices (PNDs) whilst only 29% in France uses this type of navigation assistance.
3. In Europe, Russia shows that 54% of the respondents use mobile devices for navigation assistance. Amongst the countries that were surveyed, Brazil has the highest number (60%) of users using mobile devices for navigation purposes.

Source: NAVTEQ Annual Tracking Study (Countries where the study was conducted: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States).

“This study again confirms the potential of navigation offerings to consumers and underscores a growing awareness in countries where navigation has been less widely available,” stated Bruno Bourguet, senior vice president, EMEA, Sales. “It also points to the fact that there continues to be a place for a wide range of offerings as navigation and location based services become increasingly mainstream.”