Interchangeability standard for digital maps open the market for car navigation systems

The paper deals with the following topics: the quality of digital maps and the way the quality determines the functionality of a navigation system; the content of a digital map and the way it affects the functionality of a navigation system; the availability of digital maps and the way this influences the market potential of navigation systems; the interchangeability of map products among the navigation systems-a very important aspect for the realisation of the market potential. Navigation applications are currently being introduced in the market. However the current situation impedes evolution into a large scale mass-market adoption. This situation mainly refers to the fact that the media containing the map data are not interoperable between navigation systems. The article also presents an overview of current standardization activities