European navigation device manufacturer TomTom had announced entering Indian market earlier this year. TomTom has now launched their VIA range of personal navigation devices in India. The devices are priced starting at Rs.15,000.
The 3 models launching in India are Via 100, Via 120 and Via 125. The devices will be available at retailers such as Reliance Digital, Reliance Autozone, Car Nation, and about 70 more independent car accessories stores nationwide. It will be also available on-line at Flipkart.
TomTom’s automotive-grade quality maps of India covering the entire country with street level details, will form the back bone of the VIA range dedicated to the Indian car driver. We will continue to expand coverage and add relevant content like points of interest for landmark navigation for the growing Indian market.
The VIA series will be available at leading retailers and independent car accessories stores as well as on-line as of October. Key features include; landmark navigation, hands-free calling advanced lane guidance and voice control.
Navigation system market in India is expected to be around $158Mn by 2014. In India Garmin and MapMyIndia are the 2 biggest players. Both of these are hardware based systems. Though very slowly, but smart phone based navigation apps are gaining popularity as well.
What do you think of this market? Is hardware the way to go?
Given that people still don’t mind asking for directions here, is India a large enough market for this?
