There is no right answer when it comes to deciding what is going to be the dominant solution for the future of in-car navigation.

That's the conclusion of Andrew Hart, senior specialist on navigation at automotive industry consultancy SBD.

He believes that embedded navigation will continue to prevail in the short-term as vehicle manufacturers “nervously progress” with different integration approaches. But he said the preferred choice for future systems remains unclear.

“It's one of the biggest difficulties they [the automotive industry] face now: there is no right answer. There is no single dominant way about how to implement navigation in the car,” he said.

Hart is the author of a new report “Evaluating the Impact of Free Navigation”, which analyses the effect of Google and Nokia's recent announcements on free navigation software.

He said the study, which looks at the US and Western European markets, finds the impact in both the short and long-term has been “slightly overstated” by many in the industry.

He said the moves by Nokia and Google had been building for a while and the major PND manufacturers had been preparing for it by diversifying their offerings.

“That will dampen slightly the short-term effects and a lot of the key players are preparing to change, or are already changing, their strategy based on the commoditisation of navigation,” he said.

“So, in some ways the report is taking for granted that navigation will become a commodity on smartphones and analysing how navigation suppliers – both vehicle manufacturers and PND suppliers – have been adapting, and will adapt, to it in the future.”

Originally posted on GPS Business News - David Montgomery, Author

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