Demand for navigation tools rises

By Alex Kayle for Nokia
Johannesburg, 01 Dec 2008

Nokia has released survey results showing 97% of South Africans admit to getting lost, with Johannesburg being the most complex city to navigate through.

This comes at a time when demand for cellphone functionality is increasing. A separate report, by BMI-TechKnowledge, reveals the number of cellular users is expected to increase from 35 million this year to just less than 42 million by 2013.

According to Nokia, its survey is one of the largest navigation studies to date, targeting 13 countries around the world, including SA.

Tania Steenkamp, communications manager for Nokia SA, says the survey enabled Nokia to gain insight into consumer behaviour around personal navigation, to find out where in the world people are most likely to get lost, and how they currently use navigation tools and services.

The study, compiled in October by ICM, interviewed 12 500 people worldwide. It was found that 25% of people surveyed rely on online and mobile navigation tools. In addition, it was established that 13% of people use a cellphone as their primary navigation tool.

Marita Markkula, head of marketing for Nokia Maps, says: "More people are becoming comfortable with using navigation tools on their phones and in their cars, and are seeing direct benefits from using these devices in their everyday lives. People can customise the navigation features in their phones according to the routes they take, and updating information is quicker and easier than with traditional maps.”

Markkula believes navigation technology is increasingly embraced due to the rapid growth of major cities such as Germany, which has the highest reliance on satellite navigation in the world.

The survey found 93% of people get lost regularly, with the average person wasting 13 minutes each time they get lost.

Steenkamp says: “It is vital for Nokia to gain insight into consumer behaviour and patterns, which allows us to tailor our services and solutions to their personal needs. Consumers are getting an all-in-one offering from a variety of Nokia devices; more than 10 of our current devices have a fully integrated GPS functionality and Nokia maps.”

Ryan Smit, consumer market analyst at BMI-TechKnowledge, believes handset trends, such as media-oriented handsets, navigation handsets and touch-screen interfaces, indicate consumers are demanding higher functionality, with convergence becoming more prevalent.