CSR hopes to cash in as GPS outperforms cellphone market
Published: 23 January, 2009
Study after study shows that GPS will be one of the few bright spots in the cellphone chip market this year, and that the satellite positioning technology will expand into a far wider range of devices, taking the chip specialists with it.
The latest forecast, by ABI Research, says there may be a "slight blip" in sales of GPS-enabled handsets around mid-year, but these devices will consistently outperform the cellphone norm. So while the market as a whole is likely to see volume decline of 5% or more in 2009, GPS phones should increase by 6.4% to 240m units, says ABI. This is because of the rising demand for location aware applications, and the fact that GPS remains mainly concentrated at the smartphone end, which will ride out the downturn more strongly than other cellphone categories.
By 2014, ABI believes GPS chipsets will be in 90% of smartphones, compared to one-third in 2008. They will also be stimulated by the rise of software platforms with location-based APIs, such as Android.
Meanwhile, IMS Research says 2008 was a "break-out year" for GPS in phones, and in 2009 the technology will expand into cameras, laptops, femtocells and even sporting equipment to drive 25% year-on-year growth.
Looking to take advantage of the trend, Bluetooth chip specialist CSR claims its latest BlueCore BC7830 is the most highly integrated and smallest GPS combination device available for handsets. It measures 11 square millimetres and incorporates GPS, Bluetooth v2.1+EDR, FM transmit and receive, and support for Bluetooth low energy. The UK chip company says this will allow manufacturers to add GPS functionality for less than a dollar in incremental silicon cost plus external GPS components (GPS antenna, filtering and clocking components).
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