Annual Tracking Survey Highlights Continued Growth in Consumer Navigation Use

CHICAGO, Feb. 10, 2011 — (PRNewswire) — NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world, is sharing insights gleaned over the course of the past year to provide a state of the industry perspective on consumer use of navigation.  Conducted on an annual basis, NAVTEQ's tracking study assesses user interaction across all sectors of navigation including in-vehicle systems, portable devices and mobile/smartphone applications.  In 2010, the online study was conducted in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Highlights of the research results include:

• In most countries studied, consumer experience with navigation still increased from 2009 levels, having slowed somewhat to single versus double digit growth.
  • For Europe, mature navigation markets all show consumer experience with navigation at over 50%, with Germany, France and Italy approaching 60%.  The number of respondents reporting experience with navigation grew 3-6 percentage points, with that growth coming from consumers who were only "familiar" with navigation the year prior (note 2010 is the first year in which Italy was surveyed).  In Russia, which is at an earlier stage in the market cycle, consumer experience with navigation has not yet passed 40%.
  • In the other more mature countries – the US and Australia – consumer experience with navigation was relatively flat versus 2009 with 46% and 53% of respondents respectively claiming experience with navigation.
  • APAC continues to show wider variances dependent on country with the respondents stating that they have used nav ranging from a high of 56% in China, to 35% in Indonesia and a low of 17% in India.  However, respondents in India who are "aware" of navigation was almost 70%, showcasing the huge potential of that market.
  • And in the first year of tracking Latin American countries, the study found that 1/4 to 1/3 of consumers in Mexico and Brazil claimed experience with navigation (Mexico 25%; Brazil 33%).  Familiarity was also high in these markets, with less than 10% of consumers claiming no awareness.
• Not surprisingly, the study shows use of mobile/smartphone navigation tends to follow navigation market maturity.  Experience with mobile navigation is higher in less mature/emerging markets versus mature markets where in-vehicle and portable navigation became established first (India's result being somewhat mixed).
  • "Regular" use of mobile/smartphone navigation (at least 1-2 times per week) follows the same pattern, again tending to trend somewhat higher in emerging markets

• Consumers continue to most frequently use in-car navigation systems, followed by PNDs and mobile/smartphone devices.
  • This trend was true in 11 of the 13 countries studied, even those in which overall experience with navigation was highest in the mobile/smartphone segment.
  • Respondents reporting "Regular" use of in-car navigation ranged from over 80% in countries such as Brazil and China to an average around 60% in the other countries surveyed.  Again, these levels surpassed "regular" usage of either PNDs or mobile/smartphone navigation.
  • The exceptions were India and Australia , where portable device frequency of use was slightly ahead of in-car systems.