Mar 22 2010
Reportlinker has released its 4th Edition report on GPS and Mobile Handsets.
The report will enable readers from the mobile phone industry and users to ascertain the hurdles and opportunities for integrating GPS in mobile phones, comprehend the hybrid and assisted-GPS location technologies, forecast when GNSS technology will emerge as a standard feature for handsets based on WCDMA/GSM, understand GPS strategies of leading handset and chipset vendors of the mobile industry, analyze consolidation trends and restructuring in the GPS value chain, and forecast technological developments and design trends in the future.
Questions answered in the report pertain to factors responsible for incorporating the GPS technology in mobiles, roadmap for technology development for GPS-enabled handsets in the near future, WCDMA handsets, emergence of satellite-positioning technologies as standards for handsets, advantages of hybrid, A-GNSS, and assisted-GPS handsets, handset vendors who have incorporated GPS in their handsets, leading GPS-enabled GSM vendors, and GPS support in Windows Mobile, Symbian OS, Palm webOS, BREW, and Android.
Content covered in the report include executive summary, GPSS for mobile phones, value chain analysis of GPS-enabled handsets, drivers and hurdles encountered in incorporating GPS in handsets, key handset segments, wireless chipset and GPS developers, handset operating systems, handset manufacturers, and market predictions and trends.
The most omnipresent consumer electronics gadgets worldwide are mobile phones. The number of mobile phones shipped was more than 1.1 billion for the third year in succession, despite the worldwide economic recession resulting in the decrease of mobile phone sales since 2001. Mobile phones with in-built GPS receivers are available in the market ever since the 1990s. The E911 emergency call stipulations of the FCC triggered the development of technologies relating to the integration of GPS in mass-market mobile phones. The FCC stipulation required all mobile operators in the U.S. to offer precise locations of callers in emergency situations. The iDEN and CDMA operators opted for GPS location technology to locate emergency callers, resulting in the enhanced integration of GPS in the CDMA and the iDEN in North America as well as other regions of the world deploying CDMA on a large scale. Such emergency call location regulations are being mandated in other regions of the world also. Canada has opted for mandatory precision locating requirements like the U.S. However, such regulations are yet to be implemented in Europe or Japan, since Cell-ID-based precise locating techniques adopted in location Europe and Japan comply with such emergency requirements.
GPS-based WCDMA/GSM handsets experienced an estimated sale of about 150 million units during 2009 which is an increase as compared to sales of 78 million during 2008. It has been predicted by Berg Insight that shipments of GPS-based LTE/WCSMA/ GSM mobile phones will increase to 770 million during 2014, which represents a 55% attach rate. It is predicted that handsets that incorporate air interface standards like TD-SCDMA and CDMA, as well as GPS-empowered handsets are likely to peak to around 960 million that is equivalent to 60% of overall number of handsets to be shipped during 2014.
Major mobile phone vendors as well as several key mobile operators have recently introduced their on-device application stores, taking a cue from Apple’s success. These stores enable mobile phone users to download store’s application on to their handsets directly. A majority of these applications provide support for GPS-based location features.
It was possible to deploy reduced-cost A-GPS services by using the OMA SUPL A-GPS standard. The deployment resulted in more consistent and better user experience for the mobile phone consumer market. The SUPL facilitates mobile operators in deploying A-GPS services, which reduce power consumption, decreased time-to-first-fix, and enhancing GPS receiver sensitivity. New business models have emerged which range from services that can be deployed by vendors of handsets for users who are not able to get them from their networks to operator-hosted services. These business models also offer increased support for various satellite systems, thereby guaranteeing enhanced performance in urban gaps and valleys and additional visible satellites. To enhance performance in indoor locations handset vendors are adopting hybrid location technologies. These technologies integrate technologies based on sensors and various wireless technologies, such as electronic compass, gyroscopes, accelerometers, and Wi-Fi positioning systems, with GPS to achieve better performance under challenging situations where GPS signals are not available or weak.