Motorola brought an impressive new connected portable navigation device to the Consumer Electronics Show last week. It is the first unit built around Airbiquity’s in-band modem technology which enables a variety of first-time connectivity features on a PND. And the user interface offers some unique elements worthy of emulation by competitors as well. In the end, however, despite having conquered technology challenges in bringing this innovative device to market, the greatest challenge facing Motorola when the product becomes available later this year, will be gaining shelfspace position at retail in a consolidating segment.
The first-time list of features on the Motonav TN700 includes a wide-screen 5.1″ display, Bing411 voice-enabled business search, Caller ID for announcing in-bound callers, a scrolling list of POIs that appears on the left hand side of the screen as they are passed by the device, speed camera alerts from Cobra (a capability beginning to show up on other new PNDs), and direct entry of addresses (ie. street number, name, etc.). The Airbiquity in-band modem enables the inclusion of a bundle of services called MotoExtras - free for the first 3 months - including weather, gas prices, flight status, etc. Google Search is also accessible for locating POIs. Traffic data is provided by Navteq free for the life of the device as part of Traffic.com’s ad-supported business model.
The price of the device has not yet been set, but will likely be in the mid- to high-end range. The speed camera data and MotoExtras will be subject to annual subscription and bundling offers both yet to be determined. The real challenge for Motorola, though, will be gaining a foothold in retail stores where Garmin and TomTom have been adding SKUs to their assortments pushing aside second and third tier brands. According to one industry assessment, the two brands account for 63% of all retail shelfspace, up from 55% a year ago. Motorola currently has 1.8% share in the U.S. Further complicating Motorola’s retail ambitions is the low-end orientation of the PND market, with as much as 75%-80% of sales coming from entry-level models, the expected re-emergence of Magellan and Mio later this spring, and Best Buy’s ongoing ambitions in the connected PND segment.
Related content:
Connected PND Database: http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=ReportAbstractViewer&a0=5213
Automotive and Portable Navigation Forecast: http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=ReportAbstractViewer&a0=4785
