It was announced as big news last June : ' Philips announces PND market entry'. But now it seems that the initial expectation of the first products appearing this September were a bit all too optimistic.Rudy Provoost, chairman of the Philips Consumer Electronics division stated in an interview with Betten Beursmedia that the introduction of the first products has been postponed until Q1 of 2007.
Impact
According to Provoost, when they were setting up the definitive plans, it became clear that it would be a better idea to postpone the product release for a couple of months: "We concluded that the release of these products would create more impact and effect if synchronised with the road map of other products."Of course this means that Philips will miss out on the very important Christmas holiday season. But Provoost claims this is not a problem: "it won't be here before Christmas, but there are lots of other important moments. We won't introduce in a one-size-fits-all-method, but rather a in very specifically targeted introduction, in which we will collaborate very closely with specific retail partners. We will use these extra couple of months to make sure it's done exactly right, and we will do this at our own pace."
And for those who believe that this probably means that Philips is backing out of the PND market: "It is a very rapidly growing segment with value. Personal navigation is currently the fastest growing segment in consumer electronics", according to Provoost. "We are still very motivated and committed to enter this market." This should show from that fact that Philips is now also considering selling navigational systems in the United States. Until recently, the company had stated to limit itself to a few countries is Western-Europe.
