Location data is at the forefront in providing insights, actionable intelligence, and powering critical decisions in the post-pandemic era. The importance of the Location Intelligence industry is well-realized in several sectors such as healthcare, retail, banking and insurance, supply chain and logistics, real estate, emergency response, and mobility (humans and goods).
The end-user industries are highly dependent on data gathered through GNSS-enabled consumer centric devices such as smartphones, connected wearables, personal tracking devices, low-power asset tracking devices, portable computers, tablets, and digital cameras. These devices generate a huge amount of data which is first processed by data companies, and then various analysis and trends are derived via software/platforms. These insights and trends enable end-user industries in taking well-informed decisions.
Also read: 4 chief trends influencing the growth of GNSS chip market
While mapping the entire value chain of the Location Intelligence industry, many have left out one stakeholder that plays a big role in enabling the consumer-centric solutions – the GNSS chip manufacturers.
The complete overview of Location Intelligence value chain should be as follows:
- GNSS Chip Manufacturers
- Chipset Integrators
- Device Manufacturers
- Data Providers
- Platform and Analytics Providers
- End-users
The ever-expanding GNSS chips market
According to the GNSS Market Report (2019 ISSUE 6) produced by the European GNSS Agency, in the consumer solutions industry, the total revenue of GNSS Chip sales and services (data revenue and apps) is expected to cross $143 Billion by 2029, in comparison to about $77 Billion in 2019, while the installed base of GNSS chips is expected to be around 9 billion units by 2029.
In 2017, within the chipset manufacturers market in the consumer solutions value chain, 53% of the market share was accounted for by companies headquartered in the North American region while 2% of the market was from the European region. 65% of the system integrators market (device manufacturers such as smartphones/tablets, wearables, people tracking devices, etc.) were from the Asia-Pacific region.
Also read: Using location intelligence for safer driving experiences
The largest consumer of GNSS chips in the consumer solutions industry is smartphones. The market for smartphones is dominated by companies such as Samsung, Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi, and Oppo. As we move ahead, this industry would still be the largest consumer for GNSS chips, but the overall sales of smartphones is expected to decline as their users tend to now use the same device for a longer duration, which has extended the replacement cycle, and therefore slowed down sales.
Overall, the total number of GNSS chip sales in the consumer solutions industry is expected to increase from $1.8 billion in 2020 to about $2.5 billion by 2029.
Because of enablers such as 5G, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and the proliferation of GNSS-enabled smart devices (creating an enormous amount of location and other data types), the processing power using Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been of prime focus for the Location Intelligence platform and analytics providers. As we progress into these unprecedented times, the data and the solutions are expected to be more real-time, and that’s the need of the hour.
Also read: GNSS, IMU and Imaging
