August 8, 2005

Interview with Magellan's Christian Bubenheim

Engadget.com sat down with the VP and General Manager of Thales' Magellan consumer products Business, which includes the Magellan GPS systems.

He talks about the various areas of their business, including the automobile navigation segment, where the market is most advanced in Japan (go figure), Europe, and finally North America, where he says that,

"[The North American] market is doubling year over year. We're the market leader in the North American market with the RoadMate series."

He continues to discuss the balance of the market saying,

"The other segment on the GPS side is outdoor recreation. Within that there's a lot of different segments. A big one is marine. Another is outdoor enthusiasts, people who like to hunt, hike, fish, trek, bicycle. And the third in this area is athletic products, with GPS usually coming in a large type of watch. Those are just now starting to emerge as an additional category."

He claims to have 53% of the auto GPS market, with between 25% and 35% of the outdoors segment. Since they are not leaders in this market, we would only have to conclude that they need to play catch-up, especially in the wrist mounted fitness area that has been a popular segment for Garmin. If you haven't noticed, the Forerunner 201 and Forerunner 301 have been big sellers at Amazon this summer, usually taking the top spots most days. Other days more recently it has been the Magellan Roadmate760, at $1099, no less.

When asked about potential future applicaitons or devices, he says,
"There are a couple of things that will emerge over the next couple of years. The main one is the classic consumer electronics drivers: As volume goes up, cost goes down, innovation becomes more rapid. The price for GPS chips is dropping dramatically. All mobile devices will be able to integrate GPS very cost-efficiently. Cell phones will be the most important driver of GPS adoption over the next couple of years. As the carriers roll out services and provide information based on location, that will be a major new segment that is opening up."

Get ready for some more subscriptions to something, right?

For the full interview see Engadget.

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