It’s been on the cards for a while, but now the figures are starting to stack up for those who argue that the smartphone will kill off satnavs sooner rather than later.
GPS market leader, Garmin has seen it’s stock price fall by nearly 50% over the past two years, going from $51 to $29, with the that figure expected to drop once more –towards $26 – in the next few weeks. Meanwhile the company’s first foray into smartphones (the Garminfone) is also floundering.
Regarding its share-prices first, Forbes reports that Bank of America/Merrill Lynch has downgraded Garmin stocks to the “underperform” category – which will obviously scare off plenty of potential investors.
TG Daily quite rightly noted that most smartphones now have GPS technology built-in, and many of them have turn-by-turn direction software. Android phones also have Google’s new Navigation software, and the iPhone can , to a certain extent, double as a GPS device.
There is more bad news for the company too. While Garmin has attempted a ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ approach by launching it’s Garminfone in the US (which represents its biggest market by some distance) this too has fallen flat with sales said to be hugely disappointing since the smartphone’s launch a month ago.
T-Mobile USA is said to be “struggling” to get rid of the handset and according to some estimates T-Mobile has sold around only 20,000 Garminfone units so far.
Of course, the death-knell of the satnav may be some way off but there’s no doubt that this market has been evolving rapidly over the past year – with the wind blowing firmly in the direction of the smartphone. Whether Garmin and other vendors in this space can take a piece of that action is another question, but the early signs aren’t great.
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