New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, "North American GPS Equipment Markets," reveals that this market generated revenues totaling $3.46 billion in 2003. Total market revenues are expected to reach $10.77 billion in 2010.

"Most manufacturers believe that the growing number of new end users will offset the expected margin decreases," says Frost & Sullivan senior analyst Ron Stearns. "But they must choose their markets carefully as competition continues to increase in high-volume GPS-enabled applications."

Commercial margins in established, high-accuracy applications such as land-based and hydrographic survey may stay in the 30-50 percent range even as those in the land-based recreational handhelds and recreational marine product sectors shrink.

As such, first-to-market technical improvements hold the key to success. Enhanced displays, software, battery power and functionality can differentiate new applications in this competitive market where many products offer similar features.

Competition is also materializing for GPS in the form of Galileo -- the planned European satellite positioning system -- which has finally garnered funding for construction and testing. Anticipating signal/equipment compatibility needs and developing positioning equipment to use both GPS and Galileo can be advantageous for manufacturers.

The United States and allied forces around the world have already become reliant on GPS as a means of weapons delivery, navigation and location in remote locations. Now, niche applications in vehicle and personal location are expected to attract new users to the GPS equipment markets.

"The media attention these applications draw are further educating potential GPS users about the technology, its capabilities, and its impact on their everyday lives," notes Stearns.

For now, manufacturers only need to keep pace with the high-volume application demands especially from in-vehicle navigation, fleet management and land/marine recreational handheld markets. This might require an in-house expansion in manufacturing capabilities or the giving of partnerships/licenses to other facilities for product production and integration.

The "North American GPS Equipment Markets," a part of the Aerospace & Defense subscription, offers insights into the segments and subsegments of the GPS equipment markets in the region. It provides revenue, unit and average price forecasts for GPS-enabled equipment in the general aviation, land, marine, military, timing and wireless sectors. The wireless segment includes subsegments for mobile handsets and PDAs/pagers/laptops. Summaries and interviews are available to the press.

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