GPS phone sales will grow in 2009

ABI Research says shipments of GPS-enabled mobile phones will continue to grow throughout the current economic downturn. Although global mobile shipments are expected to drop by up to 5% in 2009, 240 million GPS-equipped phones will be shipped; an increase of 6.4% over 2008. By 2014, the company reckons 9 of every 10 smartphones will contain GPS, compared with one in three last year. [Press release]

Half of US mobile users ignore multimedia features

A new report by The NPD Group says 45% of American mobile phone users don't use the multimedia features on their handsets. In fact, only 20% use their mobiles as an all-in-one device for music, videos, web surfing and other activities. 21% were not sure if their handsets would play music and 23% weren't sure if their phone included GPS - although NPD calculated that 55% of phones sold from January to November 2008 had GPS technology. [Press release]

Vodafone wants to buy Sat Nav company

Vodafone is offering 239 million Swedish kronas (around £20 million) to buy Wayfinder, a Swedish company that makes GPS-based mobile software. The deal is likely to be completed in January next year. [Sources: TheInquirer.net; VNUnet.com; Press release - not for Australia, Canada, Japan or South Africa!]

Mobile dog tracker launched by Orange and Retrieva

Hey - it's our third dog story this year! Tracking company Retrieva has just launched its Tracking and Anti-theft dog collar in association with Orange. The collar combines GPS, GSM and RFID technologies; there's a home base station that lets you know if your dog leaves home and an Orange SIM to send alerts if the collar is removed. You can also track your dog on your mobile phone if it goes missing... and there's even a panic alarm for isolated dog walkers. The system will be launched soon with an iniial cost of £250 and an ongoing £9.99 a month. [Press release]

13% of us rely on mobiles to find the way

In a Nokia press release that's full of comedy facts - more people get lost in London than anywhere else in the world, one in three Londoners deliberately gives people the wrong directions, 10% of Spaniards consider a sense of direction matures with age, the average person wastes 13 minutes when they get lost - there's some mobile-related stuff as well. Apparently 13% of people now use a mobile phone as their main navigation tool. [Press release]

GPS-equipped smartphones outsell other navigation devices

Researchers at Canalys say GPS smartphones have overtaken the number of stand-alone Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) shipped in the Europe, Middle East and Asia. They've calculated that EMEA shipments of PNDs in Q3 2008 fell to 4.3 million, down half a million from the previous quarter, while shipments of smartphones with integrated GPS more than doubled to 10.4 million. [Press release]

82 million location-aware mobile social networkers by 2013

Research company ABI Research says there'll be 82 million people using location-based mobile social networking services by 2013. [Press release]

70 million people will be using mobiles for navigation by 2014

By 2014, 70 million people will be navigating by using their mobile phones. That's the conclusion of a new research report from Berg Insight. They say the number of mobile customers downloading routes using their handsets is expected to grow by 27.9% per year from 16 million users in 2008 to 70 million users in 2014. Revenue from subscriptions and advertisements is expected to grow by 22.4% per year during the same period, hitting €597 million in 2014. [Press release]

13% of mobiles are smartphones

Analysts at Canalys say that 13% of all mobile phone shipments in Q2 2008 were smartphones; a total of 12.6 million devices. Nokia led the smartphone market, followed by RIM. Canalys also estimated that 58% of smartphones shipped in the EMEA region had integrated WiFi, 13% had touch-screens and 38% had GPS. [Press release]

New 3G Apple iPhone launch

The worst-kept secret in the mobile industry is now public: Apple has announced its 3G-equipped iPhone. It'll go on sale in the US and UK on 11th July, with US prices from $199 for the 8GB model and an equivalent of around £100 expected in the UK. It looks remarkably like the original iPhone - even down to the 2 megapixel camera - although this new model offers GPS, 3G and Apple's iPhone 2.0 software. [Sources: BBC News; Apple; IHT.com]

More than 550 million GPS mobiles worldwide by 2012

ABI Research says over 550 million GPS-equipped mobile handsets will be produced worldwide by 2012. It says GPS is already a feature of most 3G handsets and smartphones - and it predicts we'll start soon seeing GPS included in standard high-end GSM phones. The company says the take-up of GPS phones is likely to be boosted by social networking functions, not just by navigation features. [Press release]

Mobile location-based services worth £6.6 billion by 2013

ABI Research says Mobile Location Based Services (LBS) are starting to grow, thanks to the incorporation of GPS capabilities in mobile phones. They reckon the revenue from LBS will reach $13.3 billion worldwide by 2013, up from around $515 million in 2007. Personal navigation is expected to remain the most popular service, although friend finding is expected to become increasingly popular. [Press release]

Mobile location-based social networking service launches

A new location-based social networking service has been launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It's called GyPSii and adds location-based searching to the usual combination of people, places, information and events. GyPSii can be downloaded to Windows Mobile phones, BlackBerry devices and the Nokia N95, N73, N82 & 6110 Navigator. [Press release]

Sat-nav company Garmin launches mobile phone

Following Nokia's move into mapping last year comes a mapping company's move into mobiles. GPS manufacturer Garmin International has launched the nuvifone, a touch-screen 3G mobile phone that also includes navigation features. One of those features is Google's local search capability, which sorts search results based on the user's current location. The nuvifone is expected to hit the shops in Autumn this year. [Press release]

Mobile phone sat-nav to overtake dedicated devices

Navigation using mobile phones is going to dominate the GPS sat nav market, according to a new report from Telematics Research Group. Although around 30 million personal navigation devices were sold worldwide in 2007, handset manufacturers also sold 20 million navigation-enabled phones. TRG reckons that navigation-enabled phone sales will overtake dedicated navigation device sales in 2009 - and will lead to a total of 500 million units being sold in 2015. [PDF press release]