Philips Scraps Plans to Sell Navigation Devices

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Philips Scraps Plans to Sell Navigation Devices

You are sending an email that contains the article
and a private message for your recipient(s).

Your Name:

Your e-mail:

* Required!

Recipient (e-mail):

*

Subject:

*

Introductory Message:

HTML/Text
(Photo: Yes/No)

(At the moment, only Text is allowed...)

Message Text:

Dutch Philips Electronics has shelved plans to make mobile personal navigation systems, the chief executive of Philips' consumer electronics unit said on Tuesday.

Rudy Provoost of Philips told analysts at a meeting that Europe's biggest consumer electronics producer would not enter the market for navigation devices, citing existing competition and the low profitability of introducing a new product in a saturated market.

Philips had said in June that it was planning to make its own navigation devices, which would weigh 160 grams and be 2 centimeters thick.

Philips had been planning to introduce the devices, priced at around 400 euros ($533), in Europe from September, but no products had appeared on shelves of retailers.

Philips was not the first mainstream consumer-electronics company to have look at the market for standalone navigation devices. Japan's Sony entered the European market earlier this year after specialized niche players such as TomTom and Garmin created a booming industry.