Navigate your way through GPS

Have you ever being stranded in middle of the night wondering which turn to take or gone in circles looking for a particular building wishing someone was there to point out the right route?

While some still go about in circles, a few tech savvy individuals have now turned to Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled navigation system which pinpoints turn-by-turn route to their destination.

"Our system can guide you from Kashmir to Kanyakumari across all major highways in the country. In addition, detailed intra city roads and points of interest are also available for major metros," said Jaya Prakash of SatNav Technologies, which manufactures GPS enabled navigation system.

"With SatGuide, a user navigates to any chosen location by entering the destination as the input, SatGuide resolves the current location from GPS satellites and suggests the best possible route on a map displayed on the screen. While driving, it prompts the user all along the way through voice commands with directions to reach the destination," adds Prakash.

"The consumer market is very small in India. What we have now is the tech savvy cool to be seen with or I love gadget young brigade who are adopting the GPS navigation system," says Ashutosh Pande, Managing Director, SiRF Technology, which manufactures chips for GPS enabled systems.

He adds, "Right now there are hardly around 20-25 thousand GPS enabled navigation system users in the country even though the market has high potential for growth with economy booming and more people becoming aware of such a system since till now we have always imagined GPS with only military equipments."

"Moreover, till very recently, having a digital map of the the country was was crime in India. So, in a way GPS has just taken birth in India," Pande points out.

GPS enabled navigation system manufacturers in India point out that unlike in other countries, here the only drawback for such a system is that, only city by city maps are being developed along with all the major national highways.

Airtel, one of India's largest cellular operator has recently introduced its GPS service through BlackBerry 8800 by which one get receive prompting turn by turn navigation on their cell.

"We have already got a good number of users. Since, all you need is a BlackBerry 8800, it becomes very easy for the user since he/she does not need any additional device," says an Airtel executive.

According to industry experts, the market for GPS can be broadly divided into four depending on the devices and services offered, namely, automotive, mobile phone, mobile computer and embedded consumer.

"If we take the industry statistics, the penetration level of GPS companies in all the four markets is less than 1 per cent in India. This means that more than 99 per cent of the market is yet to be tapped," says Pande.

He adds that when the GPS system was first launched in the world it was priced around US 5000 dollar. Recently, Harman/Kardon has launched a GPS device with MP3 and video for US 150 dollar.