January 10, 2019

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Future continued growth in demand for location services will come from the automotive industry, enterprise, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and providers of mobility services, as the importance of location is increasingly recognized by companies operating in these sectors, according to Strategy Analytics’ Wireless Media Strategies (WMS) report “Automotive, Enterprise, IoT, and the Mobility Sector to Drive Future Location Sector Growth.” Furthermore, in Strategy Analytics’ annual benchmark of global location companies, Google, HERE, Mapbox and TomTom, both Google and HERE demonstrate leadership and strong capability across most attributes, while Mapbox and TomTom demonstrate strengths in a variety of others.

Both established and existing use-cases are set to drive future demand for location and location services. Nitesh Patel, Director, Strategy Analytics noted, “The need for location continues to expand across key sectors. The number of cars sold annually with in-built navigation is set to rise, while we see growing adoption of location services by enterprises for a variety of uses, which include asset tracking, fleet management, and supporting business intelligence. Furthermore, consumer demand for easy to use on-demand services is driving growth for mobility services, which are underpinned by location.”

Strategy Analytics’ study also assessed the strengths and weaknesses of global location companies, Google, HERE, Mapbox and TomTom, across characteristics including map making capabilities, strength in automotive, map visualization, appeal to developers, and openness and flexibility. Google and HERE lead in map-making capabilities, with Google also leading in local search and developer reach. HERE also leads in automotive and industry growth vision, and scored strongly in other areas. Mapbox stands out in visualization and strongly with developers, while TomTom is strong across multiple areas.

David Kerr, Senior Vice President at Strategy Analytics, noted, “Competition between location companies is fierce and continues to intensify with the race to provide the most, high-quality, up-to-date and accurate maps in real-time driven by trends such as autonomous driving, growth in the number of connected devices, and growing demand from enterprises for location intelligence. Companies which are able to demonstrate the ability to meet the needs of companies across a variety of verticals, while remaining open and flexible and developer friendly will be most likely to succeed as demand for location services evolves.”