iSuppli predicts smartphone GPS to become more popular than standalone GPS devices by 2013

When I first started working at TeleNav over three years ago, many (if not most) people had no idea that you could get GPS navigation on a cell phone. This is not a formal stat - just anecdotal evidence based on my conversations with family and friends. They knew about GPS on cell phones but thought of it more as something the government uses to track people or things (gotta love Hollywood…) rather than something that would be useful in every day life.

But now, within a very short timeframe, the difference in awareness is undeniable. With smartphones becoming more prevalent and most phones now coming with GPS mapping or navigation capabilities built in, it may be harder to find someone who isn’t aware of GPS navigation on their phone.

In fact, according to iSuppli, by 2011, nearly 100% of phones will have integrated GPS functionality. In addition, the firm predicts that by 2013, the number of smartphones with GPS turn-by-turn navigation will surpass the number of standalone GPS devices in use.

“The days of supremacy for the personal navigation device (PND) in the global navigation market are coming to an end, ” according to iSuppli.

Maybe it was the word “supremacy” that did it but this report has resulted in a slew of interesting headlines:

• “Study: Smartphones to Slay Personal Navigators” - CRAVE/CNET
• “Will Smart phones Crush the Stand-Alone GPS Market?” - Barron’s Blogs
• “GPS-enabled Smartphones to Kill PNDs” - Softpedia

Slay … crush … kill - an interesting choice of words and perhaps a good example of how competitive this industry is. As they say though, competition breeds growth and innovation and I’m looking forward to 2013 to find out if iSuppi’s prediction comes true.

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Sprint Navigation (powered by TeleNav) on the Palm Pre

If you’re a customer of our carrier partner Sprint and plan on traveling this Labor Day weekend, you should consider using Sprint Navigation (powered by TeleNav) on your phone to guide you to your destination and also help you find your way around once you arrive. The application transforms your Sprint phone into a lean, mean, navigation machine and brings the features of a personal navigation device right to your phone. Better yet, it’s now available on more phones than ever before. Sprint announced today that Sprint Navigation is available on more than 60 Sprint phones, including the popular Palm Pre, one of my personal favorite devices that launched this summer.

A few of the Sprint Navigation features you’ll be able to use on your trip this weekend include:

• Voice and on-screen turn-by-turn directions complete with 2D and 3D maps to guide you to wherever you may be traveling this weekend
• Traffic alerts with one-click rerouting to help you avoid the congested roadways expected this Labor Day weekend and get you to your destination as quickly and stress-free as possible
• Real-time gas price listings help you find the cheapest gas prices along your route, helping you save a few bucks to buy that “I visited Branson and lived to tell about it” T-shirt you’ve always wanted
• More than 10 million business listings to help you find restaurants, hotels or nightlife spots along the way or when you arrive at your vacation destination
• Pre-plan your trip online to find all of the locations you want to visit during your vacation and instantly send the information to your phone so it’s there and ready to go as soon as you start up the car

You don’t have to rely solely on my word about how much Sprint Navigation can help you this Labor Day weekend and in your daily lives. After all, I might be a little biased. Today’s announcement includes quotes from three Sprint customers who use Sprint Navigation on their phones to help them do everything from streaming turn-by-turn directions through their vehicle while listening to Pandora at the same time to finding a new route around unexpected construction in a familiar area. James Kendrick of the popular tech blog JKOnTheRun also weighed in on his experience with Sprint Navigation on the Palm Pre, saying the app works just as well as a personal navigation device.

So, if you’re a Sprint customer and looking for an app to add a little guidance to your life this Labor Day weekend and beyond, check out Sprint Navigation. We’d love to hear your stories on how you used Sprint Navigation during your trip.

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Use a navigation service with real-time traffic and you may save yourself four days of this

What’s the difference between listening to traffic updates on your radio vs. getting real-time traffic via your GPS device?

Four days, according to NAVTEQ.

The company announced results of a study today that monitored drivers in metropolitan Germany, evaluating driving behavior and time of those with traffic-enabled navigation devices and those without.

Results indicate that those with traffic-enabled navigation devices spent 18% less time driving on an average trip than those without. Applied over the course of a year, this time difference adds up to the equivalent of 4 days of driving each year.

According to the announcement, time savings by U.S. drivers would be similar. The study also showed that this savings can also lower CO2 emissions by 21%.

NAVTEQ released results of a similar study in April, showing that drivers using GPS navigation devices saw a 12 percent increase in fuel efficiency, which equals a 91-metric-ton decrease in carbon dioxide emissions every year per driver. According to their calculations, GPS navigation could save drivers 416 euros (about 539 US dollars) per year on gas.

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(image source: Alabama Farmers Federation Friends & Family)

…the Pike County School system in Troy, Alabama believes it can.

According to the local newspaper today, the Pike County School system has installed GPS phones on all of its buses this year. The Sprint Nextel phones run TeleNav Track and allow the transportation department to monitor where each bus is during the day as well as keep detailed mileage reports for each bus.

If needed, the school officials can notify parents of the whereabouts of each bus without having to call each driver to determine their location.

According to the Pike County transportation department, buses in other places have been hijacked so this system helps prevent similar incidents happening in their school district.

The Pike County School system is not alone in using GPS on school buses. The Anaheim Union High School District and the Napa Valley Unified School District (both in California) are also using GPS to improve safety, efficiency and communication with concerned parents.

What do you think? Does GPS on school buses improve safety for kids? Would you feel better knowing that your child’s bus had GPS?

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For those of you using AT&T Navigator (powered by TeleNav) on your iPhone, you may have noticed that an update is now available for the application. Contact integration is now available which means you’re able to easily navigate to the addresses you have stored for your contacts right from the application.

We shot this short video demo to show all of you iPhone users how to use the contact integration feature in AT&T Navigator on your phone. As you can see, it takes only a few steps to start navigating to a contact’s address.

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The Magnavox X-Set, one of the original GPS Devices

Those of you who follow our blog and TeleNav news closely may know that a member of our management team, co-founder and CTO Bob Rennard, was a principal engineer in the design of the original GPS (Global Positioning System). Bob is a walking encyclopedia for all things GPS (and a number of other topics for that matter) and we like to refer to him as the “Father of GPS” around the office here in Sunnyvale.

BUT, we’re not the only ones who recognize Bob as the leading authority on GPS. His distinction as the “Father of GPS” extends far beyond the office walls and he’s often tapped to provide his insight and knowledge of GPS for a number of reasons. One such occasion recently occurred when Bob was asked to participate in a Q&A for the Web site GPS Lodge. Check out the Q&A here, where you can see Bob take a stroll down memory lane to explain what the original GPS equipment looked like (such as the Magnavox X-Set pictured in this post) and how TeleNav became a reality.

If you have questions about GPS, let us know and we’ll see if we can get Bob to provide some answers to your questions.

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TeleNav Track Delivers Location Information from a Mobile Handset to an easy to view Web-based system

As some of you may know, in addition to the consumer turn-by-turn navigation applications we develop here at TeleNav, we also develop a suite of location-based products for business customers called TeleNav Track. These products range from our “LITE” solutions that provide the back office, through a Web-based interface, with location information for mobile workers and resources to our Premium services which build on the capabilities of the LITE services by providing deeper operational tools such as wireless timecard entry and form completion, mileage tracking and vehicle diagnostic monitoring right from the field.

We currently have approximately 9,000 organizations using our TeleNav Track products through our carrier partners AT&T and Sprint and we’re constantly receiving feedback from our customers explaining how the improved visibility into the location of their mobile workforce has cut costs through reduced mileage, more efficient dispatching and better customer service. Check out some of our case studies.

But don’t just take our word for it. A recent report from Aberdeen Group  provides the results of a survey of companies using GPS enabled services and the findings indicate that GPS services are certainly providing substantial ROI for businesses. This TMCnet article outlines some of the survey findings.

According to Aberdeen Group, use of GPS enabled solutions by businesses with mobile workers and resources has reduced idle time and increased fleet utilization. The survey results indicated that these companies have experienced substantial reduction in fuel costs and cut their miles driven by nearly one-third. Reduced time spent behind the wheel means more time on the job site, which might also explain why these companies have experienced a 23 percent increase in workforce productivity.

Our customers have reported similar ROI after implementing TeleNav Track into their operations. This ROI is likely the reason Aberdeen Group reports that monitoring of workers and vehicles by companies responding to the research have increased by 12 percent over last year’s figures. Aberdeen Group expects that number to continue to rise as more companies look to benefit from integrating location information into their operations. 

If you’re a small business owner with mobile employees or the manager of a large fleet, now may be a good time to look into location-based solutions. In the current economy, any solution that has been proven to lower operating costs could be a wise investment.

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Have you made the switch from a dedicated GPS device to using GPS navigation on your smartphone?

This morning, the New York Times reported that smartphones are ‘beginning to displace’ standalone GPS devices as a more convenient way to get GPS navigation. The paper cited a recent report from Compete which asserted that more than 40 percent of all smartphone users are using GPS turn-by-turn on their device (for iPhone users its up to 80 percent!). The article also noted that sales of traditional GPS units have fallen sharply recently. (UPDATE: we are looking for the original Compete study but this may also include mapping services without turn-by-turn navigation)

Separately, Gartner published a report this week stating that the number of location-based services (LBS) subscribers will double in 2009 to reach nearly 96 million by the end of the year.

It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway) that we have always been believers of the potential of GPS navigation and other location-based services on phones - this was the vision of our founders when they started the company nearly 10 years ago. TeleNav services have been popular on BlackBerry smartphones for awhile but new smartphones, like the Sprint Palm Pre and the iPhone have also made a big difference. With large touch screens, these devices are very similar in size to many standalone GPS devices and can provide very nice and easy-to-follow on-screen mapping. (We’ve come a long way from the earliest versions of our service - check out this YouTube video one of our founders recently posted of TeleNav GPS Navigator v. 1.2 from 2002.)

I read a lot of comments from our customers over Twitter or on this blog that they have made the switch from standalone GPS devices to using our GPS navigation on their smartphone. What about you? Are you one of the 40 percent? Why or why not?

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Ford SYNC with Traffic, Directions and Information

Ford announced today that Ford SYNC with Traffic, Directions and Information (TDI) is now ready for free download for current owners of early-launched 2010 vehicles (Ford Mustang, Fusion, Fusion Hybrid, Lincoln MKZ and Mercury Milan) as well as Milan Hybrid vehicles equipped with Ford SYNC.

Ford SYNC provides customers with the ability to use their Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones to operate various devices and services in their car via voice commands.

TeleNav announced in January that Ford is using TeleNav’s GPS navigation software in Ford SYNC TDI. With this new version, users will have hands-free access to personalized traffic reports, precise turn-by-turn driving directions, and up-to-date information such as business listings, news sports and weather.

Drivers requesting directions can use a variety of search criteria including a 14-million-plus business directory to find their destination, be it a favorite coffee shop or the location of a business meeting. Drivers can say “Search near me” or the name of the business and then say “Connect me,” “directions” or “text me the info.”

As noted in Ford’s announcement today, Ford SYNC uses TeleNav to retrieve a turn-by-turn route. Directions are spoken to the driver over the vehicle’s audio system and displayed on the central information display near the radio. All directions incorporate real-time traffic information therefore always providing the best route to the driver.

If you use Ford SYNC Traffic, Directions and Information, let us know what you think!

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Microsoft and Ford celebrated their one millionth Ford SYNC car yesterday at Microsoft’s HQ in Redmond, Wash.

According to a few reports, Ford’s CEO, Alan Mulally, hand delivered a new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO. See above for some video from TechFlash.

Ford SYNC provides customers the ability to use their Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones to operate various devices and services in their car via voice commands.

TeleNav announced in January that Ford is using TeleNav’s GPS navigation software in the newest version of Ford’s in-car connectivity system, SYNC with Traffic, Directions and Information. With this new version, users will have hands-free access to personalized traffic reports, precise turn-by-turn driving directions, and up-to-date information such as business listings, news, sports and weather.

According to Ford’s press release, SYNC with Traffic, Directions and Information will be available this summer.

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