A surge in orders for electronic trailer tracking and monitoring systems has helped stimulate growth in the commercial telematics market, according to findings from ABI Research's Commercial Telematics Service.
"Some of the contributing growth factors for this sector include the migration to digital hardware, and the ability of many vendors to address new trailer segments such as reefers and flatbed trailers," said Frank Viquez, ABI Research's director of automotive research.
Viquez added that SkyBitz, a recent entrant to the market, has been able to more than double its market share compared to this period last year, while vendors such as Qualcomm have been able to recoup market share lost when they temporarily bowed out of the trailer tracking market.
However this has not been the only growth segment, and the considerable industry movement over the last quarter will set the pace for future growth. For example, the launch of OnStar's Business Vehicle Manager and Vehicle Diagnostics services in North America is expected to have a significant impact over the coming months. In Europe, navigation vendor TomTom NV agreed to acquire German fleet telematics vendor Datafactory AG, which will allow TomTom to position itself as a full turnkey telematics service provider.
