GPS Business News is reporting that Mio is leaving the U.S. market. If true it is undoubtedly related to parent company MiTAC’s acquisition of Magellan, though it does contradict an earlier announcement that the Mio and Magellan brands would co-exist here.
The state of the economy probably has a lot to do with this decision, although it reinforces my perspective that MiTAC is a rudderless ship, which doesn’t really bode well for Magellan.
This, combined with TomTom’s ongoing financial troubles and de-emphasis on PNDs, leaves me concerned that Garmin will achieve near monopoly dominance of the U.S. market. And that lack of competition isn’t good for consumers, and in the end, it won’t be good for Garmin either.
Well, what if this monopoly lead to Garmin to the same spot where Magellan was few years ago i.e. 90% of US market share, that caused them to take dumb decisions, introducing new PNDs with non-sense error, that was the time when Garmin started to ate up things.
I think Navigon will give the same sort of stiff competition to Garmin. The old generation in US is reluctant for Navigon but the younger will get attracted by it soon.
Moreover, the way critics over-criticize Navigon and favor Garmin is also a driving factor that's making users think about Navigon.
Just as an example, remember when Navigon introduced Lane Assistance and Live Time Traffic, all the ciritics found them as useless, but when they were introduced by Garmin[265WT and 765T], suddenly they became the "must-have" in units.
Such things in the end are always killer for the company like Garmin since such paid-critic tactics won't work long and change the fate 180 degrees out of phase!
Posted by: Syed Muhammad Fahad | April 03, 2009 at 12:42 PM