GPS Chips: A billion to be shipped each year?

Satellite-based or GPS navigation is an increasingly popular technology with consumers around the globe. For the past 2-3 years the demand for GPS chip-based systems (Global Positioning System) has fueled a surging demand for the fundamental part of the product: the GPS Chip.

A recent study (from ABI Research, a well respected industry leaders in this area) suggests that GPS chip shipments will reach one billion annually in 2013. This is one chip set for every 2-3 adults in the world!

While the prices of the products that use these GPS Chips will obviously continue to fall (and we saw a dramatic descent just over the last 6 months when satellite navigation systems in the US were advertised at $100 or so in the US), the increased volume and decreased cost of manufacturing will keep this a very profitable business.

It is predicted that at the end of 2008, the average price of a GPS chip set could fall to $3.00 driven at least in part to an explosion of GPS chip enabled cell phones and PDAs. The next generation of GPS chip products might be clothing and active wear with embedded GPS chips, or possibly universal adoption by new car manufacturers.

GPS Chips have entered the world of other huge commodities, and this growing market will provide new opportunities or the investor and consumer.