iSuppli: GPS the Next Big Thing in Smartphones

Posted 07/19/2010 at 8:17am | by Paul Lilly

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Who needs a dedicated GPS unit when your smartphone can guide you from point A to point B just as easily? That's the question consumers will be faced with when, a little more than one year from now, four out of five cell phones will come with GPS capabilities built in, iSuppli predicts.

By the fourth quarter of 2011, iSuppli reckons some 79.9 percent of cell phones will include GPU functionality, up from 56.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009. That will amount to 318.3 million units.

"The smartphone is the key product driving the technology industry today, and social networking services and applications spurred by GPS-related features are critical elements in the smartphone market today," said Jagdish Rebellow, director and principal analyst for iSuppli. "This is illustrated by Google's decision to make turn-by-turn navigation, LBS, and mobile ads the central features in its bid to take on Apple in the smartphone market, and make up the central pillars of its strategy to increasingly monetize mobile search."

And it's not just smartphones, either. According to iSuppli, GPS functionality will come embedded in a range of devices by 2014, including 18 percent of notebooks and 42 percent of portable handheld videogame players.