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: So you thought global positioning system (GPS)-based security systems are meant only for luxury vehicles segment? Think again! According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report, they are breaching the confines of the luxury vehicles segment and are making forays into other categories. The report says the revenues of the passenger vehicle telematics and navigation systems market in India was $23.2 million in 2008 and is expected to reach a chunky $44.1 million in 2013.

The maps and navigation market—especially in markets like the US, Europe and some parts of Asia Pacific—has exploded in recent years. They have started gaining consumer acceptance in emerging markets like China and Korea over the last two years and is fast becoming popular in India, point out experts.

While it is difficult to put down the exact sales figures for these systems—given that they are largely aftermarket in nature—industry analysts say there has been a more-than-two-fold increase in the sales of these fitments in the last three years. “Even though they still have to make in roads into the subcompact car categories, which constitute 60% of the total car sales in the country, they certainly are sold in enough numbers to gather attention,” says CV Raman, chief general manager (engineering), Maruti Suzuki.

Attribute it to the increasing level of awareness and consumer interest or to the drop—albeit marginal—in prices of these systems as a result of focused marketing and decreasing costs of components, the bottomline is the concept is finding wider acceptability among consumers and is working out as a nice brand differentiators for manufacturers.

Take Volvo Car India, the Indian arm of the Swedish car major Volvo Car Corporation which offers on-board GPS navigation system on both its S80 and XC 90 carlines. Says Paul de Voijs, managing director of Volvo Car India, “Most of our customers opt for the GPS navigation system. For mainstream brands, typically the younger, more technology-savvy audience would be attracted to a GPS navigation system; but it would eventually be accepted even by older audience”, he says, adding, “As with every new technology, GPS navigation systems will be expensive in the beginning but once the solution providers attain economies of scale it will be financially accessible to a wider sector of car buyers and owners.”