UK based research office Canalys has again charted the sales figures of navigational devices. The latest report covers the third quarter of 2006 in the EMEA regio (Europe, Middle-East and Africa).In the period of July to September 2006, 2.8 million mobile navigational systems were sold in total. This means a rise of more than 73% compared to the same period a year ago. The growth was a little less than that of Q2 2006, but it's still a solid 14%.
Of all the systems sold, about 90% are Personal Navigational Device. The other 10% consists of (wireless) PDA's with a built-in navigational features.
Market leader
The clear market leader in the EMEA region is and remains TomTom. The company even managed to increase their already impressive market share of last year with more than 6.5%. This means that more than 37% of all navigational systems sold are now manufactured by the Dutch company, and that for the first time the one million barrier of devices sold per quarter was broken. TomTom's ONE was the main stay in their success, which has sold very well from it’s introduction.On anther note, TomTom announced this week that they have started or will soon start with the sales of the GO and ONE in Taiwan, Ireland and South Africa. Results in the last two mentioned countries will of course alter the total number of sales in the EMEA region yet again.
| 2006 | 2005 | |||||||
| Q3 | % | Q2 | % | Q3 | % | Q2 | % | |
| TomTom | 1,042,360 | 37.1 | 747,610 | 30.5 | 510,750 | 31.5 | 258,530 | 20.8 |
| Garmin | 318,930 | 11.4 | 408,660 | 16.7 | 121,420 | 7.5 | 102,530 | 8.2 |
| Mio | 249,680 | 8.9 | 232,990 | 9.5 | 131,420 | 8.1 | 157,470 | 12.6 |
| Navman | 245,420 | 8.7 | 156,510 | 6.4 | 166,280 | 10.3 | 88,640 | 7.1 |
| Others | 951,510 | 33.9 | 903,150 | 36.9 | 689,330 | 42.6 | 638,700 | 51.3 |
| Total | 2,807,900 | 2,448,920 | 1,619,200 | 1,245,870 | ||||
Loser
Big loser in the top 4 are Garmin. Garmin was the only company that saw their sales figures decline (almost 319,000) as opposed to the last quarter, with a market share of 11.4% they only just manage to outrun the numbers three and four in that list. Compared to the numbers of 2005 however, things look a bit better though: overall Garmin's market share is rising.Mio
Mio’s market share also dropped a bit compared to Q2, but in a press release, they claim they are still very happy at remaining in third place. Leo Exter, European marketing & communications manager for Mio Technology describes their Q3 market share as a milestone and an ideal starting position for the important December month: "As the competition on the market becomes more intense, retaining third place in the EMEA zone is even more important then reaching that same position in the last quarter. We continue to work on our brand recognition and our market share with our newest products. This includes the very low-priced C250 and the niche-product H610."Chris Jones, president and main analyst of Canalys, knows why Mio is so successful: "Mio's market share in the EMEA region increases because they keep focusing on the core-business: navigation. Despite very fierce competition on this market."
Navman
Navman also had a reasonably good quarter; with increases both in sold numbers and market share. This success will have little to do with their newest devices, the F20, N40i and N60i because those only reached the market at the end of September/beginning of October.The gap to the number five in the list is pretty big. After the major four (TomTom, Garmin, Mio and Navman), Sony follows at a considerable distance with a market share of 3.5%, which equals about 100,000 devices sold.
