Lost No More

Finding a location in a foreign country or any of the Indian cities or even
getting lost in your own town are instances people encounter often. However,
gone are the days when the only option to reach your destination was by asking a
stranger for directions or letting notorious Indian taxi drivers take you for a
ride. Enter the world of GPS, where finding your way is a childs play, and its
a lot of fun using it too. In fact, there is a joke doing the rounds that people
deliberately get lost just to use their GPS-enabled devices.

On a more serious note, GPS as a technology is revolutionizing the navigation
space like never before, the proof of which comes from the nascent but growing
adoption of GPS services in India. Once an exclusivity of the developed world,
GPS is increasingly becoming common-place in emerging geographies like India.

Market Dynamics

According to estimates, the global GPS devices market is estimated at an
excess of $4 bn in 2007. Some major players globally include Trimble, Leica
Geosystems, SiRF, and CSI Wireless. Meanwhile, industry estimates pegged the
Indian market size at $22 mn in 2006 with a potential to reach $448 mn by 2012.
The main drivers of this growth would be the logistics vertical, which will
heavily use GPS for tracking. Apart from that, individual consumers and car
navigation systems are also supposed to drive the market in terms of revenue.

The concept of digital maps did not exist in the past in India, and despite
the IT boom, paper maps claimed its dominance. But the scenario changed when
commercial applications of satellites manifested in the form of GPS. In India,
though the GPS market is still emerging, it has started generating interest
among the larger section. Till 2004, there was little consumer awareness about
the value of digital maps and location-based services. With the launch of
mapping and directions portals like MapmyIndia.com in September 2004, in India,
followed by the worldwide launch of Google Earth depicting satellite imagery in
2005, and then Yahoo India Maps in 2006 (powered by MapmyIndia maps), consumers
realized the benefits of being able to search for maps and directions easily,
print customized route maps with turn-by-turn directions, and then carry it with
them. With MapmyIndia providing store locator services (the nearest store, and
how to get services) to leading banks and car companies such as ICICI, HDFC,
Hyundai, etc, digital maps are becoming a high utility tool, as consumers can
locate their nearest service center/dealer/ATM and save time also.

Reflecting on this, Rohan Verma, head, Engineering, and director, Marketing,
MapmyIndia.com, says, GPS navigation as a market has been around in India for a
couple of years now, but started taking off last year. The reason for this was
that sub-par products were introduced in the market, powered by poor quality
maps.

In the last one year, the GPS market has seen some positive moves. For
instance, Airtels launch of GPS navigation on Blackberry in June 2007, powered
by MapmyIndia.com, and the launch of MapmyIndia Navigator, an in-car GPS
navigation device for all over India, has helped improve customer perception of
the quality and benefits of these kinds of products. According to market
intelligence reports, the vehicle-tracking segment alone is forecast to reach Rs
140 to Rs 200 crore in the next two years.

Big Guys in the Game

There are a couple of prominent players in the GPS arena in India.
Hyderabad-based SatNav Technologies has got an early mover advantage by virtue
of a slew of GPS solutions. Says Amit Prasad, managing director and founder CEO,
SatNav Technologies, SatNav Technologies took an early lead, and indeed we are
the pioneers of GPS technology in India. We were the first to provide the
consumer with maps in 1999, when there were no proper maps in the country and
GPS was unheard of. We launched our first product in 2005, and all our services
have been very well received since then.

"GPS navigation as a market has been around in India but couldnt take-off because of sub-par products powered by poor quality maps Rohan Verma, head, Engineering and Marketing director, MapmyIndia.com Â	The deployment of GPS in our operations has given us a distinct edge in proactively managing our fleet. The benefits are tremendous GS Ravikumar, CIO, Gati	We took the early lead in GPS and are pioneers in this space in India Amit Prasad, managing director & founder CEO, SatNav Technologies

Recently, SatNav has also launched SatGuide turn-by-turn navigation and
planning solution for laptops and desktops targeted at the corporates. The
company is positioning SatGuide as a first of its kind efficiency enhancement
and planning tool in the country. The application includes turn-by-turn
navigation and routing software bundled with One India map of SatGuide that
covers all major cities of India along with a detailed national/state highway
network; all included in a single map. Sitting in the luxury of ones office, it
is now possible to feed-in a start-point and an end-point, and get details like
distance, time to travel, etc.

For hardware, SatGuide has partnered with one of the worlds leading hardware
manufacturer of GPS devices, Mio Technologies. In addition, SatGuide works on
any Windows OS mobile phones, laptops and PDAs.

Meanwhile, MapmyIndia is another leading GPS player in the country. It offers
GPS services for both in-car and mobile phones. The companys Navigator is an
award-winning portable, in-car GPS navigation device, functional pan-India. Says
Rohan Verma: This product is targeted at those who want GPS navigation while
driving or traveling in their car. These kinds of PNDs (portable navigation
devices) offer a much richer user experience with their large screens, dedicated
navigation features, and sleek color touch screens with the added benefit of
in-car entertainment by playing movies and music.

MapmyIndia also has the iNav series GPS navigation software for mobile
phones. This product is targeted at those who do not want to invest in another
GPS device, but have GPS navigation on their mobile phones. According to company
sources, iNav allows Indian consumers to experience high quality GPS navigation
with minimal investment and ease of use. In addition, MapmyIndia.com offers free
Internet maps, directions and local search portal, allowing anyone with Internet
access to freely search for maps, directions and tourist and business places
anywhere in India.

Growth Outlook

According to experts, because the GPS market is on the verge of stagnation
in the West, vendors are developing GPS-based services for emerging geographies
like India. Tracking and navigation are the two leading apps that will gain
further credence in India. Vehicle-tracking systems are poised to grow at a
rapid pace, with aggressive deployment by logistics companies. Take the case of
Gati, one of Indias leading logistics players, which already has more than
hundred intercity trucks enabled with GPS, and plans are on the anvil to equip
around 1,000 intercity fleet with GPS.

Says GS Ravikumar, CIO, Gati: The deployment of GPS in our operations has
given us a distinct edge in proactively managing our fleet. The benefits are
tremendous. Clearly, Gati is one of the few logistics companies known for
proactively deploying IT in their operations. While Gati is the only Indian
logistics company to have deployed GPS, many companies are expected to follow
suit, as it has huge benefits.

But despite the benefits of GPS, in an India context, there are certain
inhibitors that might slow down the adoption. Primarily, there is a lack of
awareness and the cost of GPS devices is high. Hence, mostly consumer-driven GPS
through mobile phones rather than pure GPS navigation devices are popular. Says
Amit Prasad of SatNav: The biggest inhibitor is the general mindset of the
people, but its rapidly changing. Yet another major deterrent is the import
duty imposed on these devices. It is about 34%. If the duty is reduced, we will
see a major reduction in price.

GPS in India is still in a nascent stage. Many experts believe that the
coming two years are promising for the market with cellular handset players like
Nokia, Asus, HTC, service providers like Airtel, GPS device players like Gramin,
and solution providers like SatNav and MapmyIndia eyeing the Indian GPS market
more aggressively. What this means is that more apps are on the anvil leading to
more people buying GPS devices and using services. The outlook for GPS looks
promising.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in