ABI: Predictive traffic to boost satnav market

Right: Dash Navigation's withdrawal from hardware sales provides an indication that consumers are unwilling to pay for real-time traffic data

Garmin’s recent launch of lifetime traffic subscriptions in the USA, following a similar launch by Navigon, reflects consumers’ apparent unwillingness to pay monthly fees for real-time traffic information, claims Dominic Bonte, director of ABI Research.

Bonte believes the recent decision by Dash Navigation to stop directly marketing its traffic-centric subscription-based connected personal navigation device further confirms the low perceived value of traffic services (see: Dash Express to stop selling GPS devices).

“While there is certainly an issue with convincing consumers to pay monthly fees for navigation content services, in the case of traffic the priority should be to increase the value of the offer before exploring new business models,” he says. “Predictive traffic makes time-dependent routing possible and provides customers with more trustworthy information, allowing them to prepare their trips more efficiently on internet mapping sites and to calculate a more accurate estimated time of arrival.”

Bonte says that predictive traffic information providers, such as UK-based Journey Dynamics, INRIX and TrafficCast will provide drivers with greater confidence in the routes selected and likely journey times, because their predictive traffic models are based on historical and real-time speed profiles complemented with weather forecasts, planned events and driving behavior profiles.
 

17 November 2008