ABI: Industrial Precision GPS Solutions Experiencing Sustained Growth Levels
August 25, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
| |
| Electronics & Telecom Docs |
IHS sells a full selection of standards documents & collections from the industry's top organizations.
To learn more, and for a free quote, please complete the form below. |
|
| |
While much of the current attention surrounding global positioning system (GPS) technology is focused on consumer navigation and location-based services (LBS) devices and services, analysts from ABI Research said the less well-known industrial GPS applications, such as precision agriculture, surveying, geographic information systems (GIS), construction machine control, network timing, marine and avionics, are increasingly being adopted by companies to increase quality, security and efficiency, as well as reduce costs.
"While the precision GPS industrial segments continue to experience growth levels of up to 25%, they cannot match the triple digit growth which has been observed in certain consumer segments, such as navigation and GPS-handsets," said ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte.
"However, industrial GPS segments are characterized by more stable growth and sustained higher margins compared to consumer markets subject to volatile trends and declining profitability."
In order to reach centimeter and even millimeter accuracy, GPS technology is stretched to its limits by using dual frequency, differential GPS (DGPS) and real time kinematic (RTK)-based receivers combined with correction signals to compensate for atmospheric and timing errors. Analysts said GPS is often complemented by other technologies such as sonar, radar, radio, laser or optical systems.
Precision GPS technology will benefit from the upgrade of the existing GPS satellite system. Analysts said new civilian frequencies and signals, as well as the increased transmission power provided by next-generation GPS III satellites (the $3.57 billion contract for the first 12 satellites was recently awarded to Lockheed Martin) will increase both accuracy and coverage, an important requirement for industrial applications. Coverage will be further enhanced by the rollout of new global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), such as Galileo and Glonass.
Analysts said the industrial GPS ecosystem consists of total solution providers (TSPs), such as Trimble, Magellan, Topcon, Leica, Caterpillar and Brilliant and core technology providers (CTPs), such as NavCom, Novatel, HemisphereGPS and Septentrio. It also includes value-added resellers (VARs), system integrators and distributors, and is characterized by a large number of strategic partnerships and ownership-based relationships.
Source: ABI Research.