GPS business increasing due to lower prices

The local satellite positioning equipment and services (GPS) market is increasing by some 250 percent annually in sales volume, because of lower prices for PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) and PNAs (Personal Navigator Assistant).

"If the market is to reach some €10 million this year, it will amount to €15 mln with 20,000 units sold in 2008. The market will rise at the same rapid pace, to amount to €23 mln and 80,000 units sold by 2010, according to the Technical Director of GPS distributor Sheba Distribution, Bogdan Condurateanu, for Business Standard.

Sheba Distribution is the local representative of U.S-based company Garmin, one of the top three players in the GPS equipment industry worldwide. The company targets some €1.9 mln in turnover in 2007, and has a 15-20 percent share of the local market.

Another major company in the field, GPS&More, with a 25 percent market share and an estimated turnover of €5 mln in 2007, is exclusive distributor in Romania of the iGO satellite positioning application. He says the GPS market is actually worth double that estimated by Condurateanu, up to €20 mln in 2007. "The main reason is that products are becoming more accessible. Such equipment was worth 2,000 lei (some €580) in 2005, but has dropped to 600 lei (€175) in 2007," according to GPS&More's Sales Manager, Alexandru Munteanu.