In Taiwan, GPS suppliers besides taking over most international companies’ orders, also successfully develop GPS watches for hiking, golfing and cycling. GPS receiver navigation devices have developed rapidly in recent years and are now much more than talking maps. Auto electronics, consumer electronics, home appliances, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and telecoms companies have worked together to give them a much more diverse range of functions including use in those of MP3 players, digital photo albums, movie players, and real-time road-condition receivers. They now provide information on navigation, recreation, and entertainment, all in a single unit.

Taiwan’s GPS industry started to take off in 2007. After MiTAC bought Navman, they’ve become the second biggest GPS company in Europe. Also, their sales of 800 million of PND has made them become the third largest GPS supplier in the world. At the same time, TomTom and Garmin have expended their ordering to Taiwan OEM’s from components to fabrication products. The global leader in satellite navigation, Garmin and its subsidiaries have designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications since 1989 – most of which are enabled byGPS technology. One of their principal subsidiaries is located in Taiwan. Including Japanese and European orders, Taiwan’s GPS sales were around NT$171 billion. The total growth rate was 70%, which makes its growth very noticeable compared to the 2007 ICT industry growth rate of 4.6%, or 730 billion dollars.

Even though this year, European and U.S. consumer electronic product sales are still being effected by the current economy situation, IEK is still very pretty positive about the GPS market in Taiwan. The Taiwan GPS industry market will grow strongly once the market moves from Europe and the, U.S. to the newly developed countries.

Taiwan suppliers

Because GPS chipset’s performance affects GPS’ positioning speed, sensitivity, positioning time, etc; they have become suppliers’ main target. For the last two years, GPS chipset suppliers try to merge or develop a new strategy to ensure their position and technology in the market remain strong.

In 2007, Taiwan chipset company MediaTek has become Garmin’s supplier and other companies such as Prolific Technology, MStar Semiconductor and SkyTraq slowly become influential in GPS chipset market.

MediaTek Inc.

MediaTek is a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital media solutions. The company is a market leader and pioneer in cutting-edge SOC system solutions for wireless communications, high-definition digital TV, optical storage, and high definition DVD products. Founded in 1997 and listed on Taiwan Stock Exchange under the code "2454", MediaTek is headquartered in Taiwan and has sales and research subsidiaries in Mainland China, Singapore, India, U.S., Japan, Korea, Ireland, Denmark and England.

Prolific Technology

Prolific Technology, a leading IC design house and ASIC design service provider, was founded in November 1997 by a group of highly experienced and specialized technical engineers. The Company started out by developing Smart I/O IC solutions, focusing on niche USB/IEEE 1394 bridge controller products. The Company then also ventured in the Mixed-Mode technology development, successfully designing Brushless Motor Driver IC and Hall sensors. With the future towards 3C integration, the Company will devote more efforts in SOC development as well as integration of competitive multimedia (MPEG-4/JPEG/MP3) and GPS products.

Mstar Semiconductor

MStar Semiconductor is a professional IC design house, and is dedicated in providing mixed-mode integrated circuit technologies. By combining semiconductor design expertise and advanced proprietary technologies, MStar delivers a broad line of products: multimedia, wireless communications ICs, general-purpose mixed-mode ICs, and Intellectual Property (IP) development services. Backed by a very experienced mixed-mode R&D team (members are with years of experiences of mixed-mode design and were the key members of the mixed-signal design groups from several prestigious hi-tech corporations), MStar is able to leverage its know-how in mixed-mode processing to deliver products, which facilitates our diversified range of semiconductor solutions. MStar is committed to providing timely, professional technical services to ensure customers success using our products.