MapmyIndia to sell 100k navigation devices by the end of 2009

MapmyIndia, the flagship portal of New Delhi-based CE Info Systems, is aiming to sell around 100,000 personal navigation devices (PND) by financial year end 2009.

The navigable map and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions provider launched these portable GPS navigation devices for cars and mobile phones recently in the country.

"PNDs are quite new to the country but with companies like Ford, General Motors and Sony Ericcson promoting these devices through their car and mobile handset sales the concept is going to be popular. We intend to sell around 100,000 devices by March 2009 and are targeting at a million plus sales within next three years," Rohan Verma, director of MapmyIndia.

For the calendar year 2008, MapmyIndia has set aside an investment of $ 2 million (Rs 8 crore approx.) for launching its new product.

With around 1.8 million cars of Rs 5 lakh and above being sold last year in India, Verma said that the company is expecting PNDs to be sold as popular car accessories. Since the company has an expertise in digital mapping, the devices are sourced from countries like China, Taiwan and Korea.

The digital mapping software can be downloaded on GPS-enabled mobile handsets, apart from PNDs. The devices cover 174 cities, 130,000 towns and villages and over 45,000 points of interest across the country.

In Gujarat, the devices will cover around 16 cities including Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Jamnagar.