Here's the passage in the press release, which is not entirely clear:
"The Auto PC platform is expandable and upgradeable. This
version allows a variety of third-party add-ons and solutions such
as enhanced navigation applications, wireless data applications,
cellular phone integration, vehicle diagnostic applications and
many others."
I am also curious as to what the base price of this product is versus a fully loaded product, and what the "enhanced" applications may be. I noticed in my research one cute possibility -- a transfer of address information between a handheld PC via infrared port (I assume this is like a TV remote) to the onboard "Auto PC," which then could give the driver verbal, step by step instructions to the address. Pretty neat for rich people.
Also, I believe that Visteon, one of the partners, is a Ford Motor entity, so we may be seeing Ford sign up as well as VW, etc.
Some poster on Yahoo was dismissing the car navigation market as "low margin," which borders on idiocy considering (a) it's not especially low margin and (b) it is potentially enormous.
I am very encouraged by this alliance, but realize that major profits from it are about two or three years away. Trimble IR has indicated that it has 30% of GPS engine market, which is itself about 30% of the overall market, and that the overall market should be about $3 billion in year 2000. By my math, if TRMB holds market share (and it could increase the way they're going), that's $300 million in revenues, or so, in year 2000, from car navigation alone. I wouldn't be surprised if TRMB were pulling in over $700 million in revenues that year. |
