Twenty five percent of WCDMA handsets to have GPS by 2008

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 11 October 2006 15:23

Business IT - Technology

According to ABI Research a combination of regulatory pressure, consumer demand and falling prices will see 25 percent of 3G WCDMA handsets having in-built GPS by 2008.

According to ABI's principal analyst, Alan Varghese, there are four factors driving GPS: mandates for accurate location with emergency calling in the various regions; competition from CDMA carriers who have had GPS integrated in their handsets since 2002 and who been turning on location-based services over the past year;  carriers continuing to look for ways to increase data ARPU and recoup some of their high licensing costs for 3G spectrum; and consumers' need for portable navigation and other applications.

ABI Research predicts that, by 2008 the cost of the GPS chipset to handset manufacturers will be just $US2.70.