Navigation in India: smooth sail or a bumpy ride

We may see a repeat of the Telecom story in the navigation space

Growth – India is going through rapid urbanization and the connectivity across cities is rapidly expanding with lots of new highways being built. More and more people are buying automobiles and traveling to near by hill stations, resorts, outlying townships etc. One can see a lot of movement of people across the county.

As movement increases it is our belief that navigation products will become an integral part of the lifestyle of the people at large for the reasons such as convenience, safety, security and comfort. Indian navigation industry is here to stay and grow. MapmyIndia believes as more and more players enter the Indian navigation marketplace, the overall market will expand and one should not be surprised if we see a repeat of the Telecom story in the navigation space.

Impediments – Navigation is given fact in the western world and also in countries like Japan, Korea. The biggest issue facing navigation today in India is lack of awareness. We believe since the large telecom operators and handset OEM are entering this space, the issue of awareness about navigation and GPS related products will soon be history and with the advent of 3G networks, navigation will be part of the mainstream solution on all sorts of mobility devices. Since India does not have legacy navigation products, the products will be based on the latest and greatest technology at prices that will be much more reduced than what they were The user in India is still new to navigation, slowly but surely we are seeing that the user is using map tools be it via the internet, or PND or mobile phones. In the last one year there has been a definite increased consumption of navigation products in India. The user wants the product to be highly local (my landmarks, my school, restaurants serving my favorite cuisines etc) such that the experience is much more enhanced.

Navigation is here to stay be it on dedicated devices or connected mobility devices as long as it serves a purpose from safety, security and convenience point of view. Navigable map data is the heart and soul of all navigation solutions and MapmyIndia is proud to provide to the Indian consumers what we believe is the best available map data in India. As we speak many new point of interest (landmarks) are being added which is a hybrid combination of user content which is validated by field surveys