GPS sales rise over Christmas

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 08 Jan 2008

Distributors say global positioning systems (GPS) sold well over Christmas.

"Yes, the personal navigation device (PND) was as popular as hoped for," says Core Group TomTom product manager Francois Elzenga. "2008 will be even better."

Jason Theunissen, executive director sales at Garmin distributor Avnic Trading, says: "There's no doubt that GPS was the number one gift choice this Christmas.

"If Santa's sleigh stopped on your roof you would have expected to see a Garmin n"uvi clipped to the front of it. Garmin had excellent sales over the period, exceeding forecasts, and in spite of a rash of new entrants we are confident we maintained our strong position in the market," he adds.

Both Elzenga and Theunissen declined to release actual sales figures.

Content provider MapIT spokeswoman Lorraine Deane says: "Our map licence sales were as high as hoped for. Sales of our map licences from October to December exceeded 78 000. This was in line with our expectation."

Pre-Christmas research by World Wide Worx as well as Jump Shopping, the online shopping search site, indicated that GPS PNDs would be a popular gift. Jump MD Albert Bredenhann in December said the most popular search on the company's site was for GPS satellite navigation systems.

The sales results come despite concerns that a slew of interest rate hikes and the National Credit Act would put a dampener on consumer Christmas spending. Several retailers in the clothing, furniture and even building materials sectors have already reported disappointing holiday sales.