The idea behind advent of global positioning system was the interest to track far-off subjects. The economically developed countries were the first to adopt this technology. But with the dawn of Globalization in India, it also adopted the said revolution. Because of it, the world has turned out to become a global village with everything being a just search away.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. All that we need to have is a GPS Receiver. Hundreds of applications have been developed affecting every aspect of modern life, due to free, open and dependable nature of GPS. GPS technology is now in everything from cell phones and wristwatches to bulldozers, shipping containers, and ATM’s. The GPS system mainly consists of the Space segment, the Control segment and the User segment. All these three work together to find the position of the required subject.

Many local and international companies have entered the market and are competing to grab a share in the GPS Tracking & Navigation Market. The global market is slated to increase at the rate of 25-30% and a prediction is stated till 2016.

The drivers that help the sector to prosper include growth in logistics vertical, growth in radio cabs, increasing penetration of high end phones, demand from the BPO sector, increasing sale of luxury cars and entry of mapping portals. GPS entails tracking of the vehicle as well as fuel consumption that ultimately goes on to solve all the intricate issues in logistics management. As logistics players become cautious in their operations and herald the usage of GPS, growth in the same translates into growth for the GPS sector. Another high usage of GPS is in radio cabs. With safety and security concerns alarming large over the country, radio cabs’ operators are installing GPS in their cabs both for their easy functioning as well as for commuters’ safety. Also GPS available as an added feature in mobile phones which again poses as strong enough to drive growth for the sector. In lines with radio cabs, BPO sector has also introduced cars with GPS installed in them as concern over safety and security especially wo
men and inadvertently as the sector grows, GPS is sure to derive growth from the same.

Entry of mapping portals that provide navigation aids required for tracking is significant as well. While these factors can be termed as growth drivers there are certain factors that act as hindrance to the sector including customer retention, fragmented logistics sector, lack of awareness and consumer perception and operational issues.

The Government also plays a key role in regulating the use of the technology in the country. It caters to providing brief deliberations on the Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing and related licenses.

The major trends identified in the sector include GPS providers cement bond with automobile manufacturers, GPS providers look at partnering with stores, mobile phone players rendering free services, emergence of new applications in the sector, GPS introduced for bikes, entertainment options offered with GPS devices, India to have its own GPS installed in public transport systems.

In this era of globalization, the advancement in technology and increasing demands has led to the modernization of the GPS system and implementation of the next generation of GPS III satellites and Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX). Authorization has been done to modernize effort, referred to as GPS III. With the modernization and introduction of improved GPS system, the Indian market, for the same, is showing an increasing trend.