Amsterdam, Netherlands – North American retail-level sales of portable navigation devices (PNDs) fell 16 percent in the third quarter to 900,000 units compared to 24-percent declines in the first and second quarters, TomTom said in reporting its third-quarter financial results.
“The rate of decline of the PND market slowed down, particularly in Europe,” the company said.
Based on TomTom’s research, first quarter retail-level PND sales fell 24 percent to 800,000 units in North America compared to the year-ago period. In the second quarter, North American PND sales fell 24 percent to 1 million units compared to the year-ago period.
In 2013, industrywide retail-level PND sales in North American fell 26 percent to 5.4 million units, TomTom previously said.
Separately, the company announced that it has become the first company to deliver real-time weather information to navigation devices to calculate routes and arrival times.
TomTom navigation devices that receive traffic information will also receive weather information.
“By knowing the exact traffic situation across the entire road network, we can calculate the quickest route to help people get to their destination faster,” said Ralf-Peter Schäfer, head of TomTom Traffic. “We know that bad weather is often unpredictable and can cause significant travel delays. Now, by factoring in the weather, we give drivers more advanced knowledge about the road ahead to make journeys faster and more predictable.”
