GPS World - January 2008 - (Page 59)

Survey & Construction | BUSINESS OUTLOOK Year of the Who T echnology will take a back seat to the X-factor in industry this year. While the technology is somewhat predictable for months (even years) in advance, the X-factor is full of surprises and 2008 will be the stage. The X-factor is the people who run the companies. Javad. The first X-factor that comes to mind is Javad Ashjaee, former scientist at Trimble, founder of Ashtech, founder of Javad Positioning Systems, then Javad Navigation Systems, and now, Javad GNSS. Always a driver of leading-edge technology, he’s back in the survey/con- survey and consumer GPS markets — and consumer is piping hot right now. There’s no doubt in my mind they have the technology to compete with the best-in-class in survey, but do they have the interest? Topcon. They’ve been eating everyone’s RTK lunch for the past few years. That train has slowed a bit because everyone’s got what only Topcon used to have: GPS/ GLONASS RTK. What could make a big difference for Topcon in 2008 is not new GNSS technology, but rather closing the deal on the Sokkia acquisition that was announced last May. It’s been a long time since that announcement, and they’re still THE X-FACTOR is full of surprises, and 2008 will be the stage. The X-factor is the people who run the companies. ERIC GAKSTATTER writes the twice-monthly SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION e-mail newsletter. Subscriptions are available free at www.gpsworld.com. This article presents an abridged version of his most recent column. SURVEY PERSPECTIVES with Eric Gakstatter struction game as of January 2008. Where was he? Since early this decade, he’s been tied to Topcon. Now they’ve parted ways and he is “pleased to have completed this transaction and focus solely on my new venture.” His challenge will be setting up a dealer network to push his products and, to a lesser extent, rebuilding his reputation as a solution provider and not just a GNSS box designer. Magellan. Now freed from the dungeons of French conglomerate Thales, Magellan is making waves again in the survey/construction market. The question is, how interested are they in this market? They still dominate L1 survey with their ProMark series and continue to innovate with products like the ProMark RTK, but they’ve been noticeably absent in offering a GPS L1/L2 +GLONASS receiver. One potential distraction is the consumer GPS market. Magellan is the only company that is entrenched in both the www.gpsworld.com waiting for Japan Fair Trade Commission approval. It shouldn’t take this long. But stranger things have happened. If Topcon can find a way to top off the deal, 2008 will be a very interesting year for them. Leica/NovAtel. It was only a matter of time before someone bought Nov Atel. The likely choice was Leica/Hexagon since NovAtel is their sole GPS supplier. Hexagon, who purchased Leica earlier, bought NovAtel for roughly $390 million. It really won’t change what Leica offers to the survey/construction market. It will provide more control over specialized development that NovAtel engineers do for Leica. Hexagon wants market share growth in the market. That was further demonstrated by their purchase of Allen Precision Equipment, Inc. (APE) in midyear. APE was the largest Topcon distributor in the United States at the time. I don’t think Hexagon is done yet. They have the resources to continue acquiring companies to advance their market position. Trimble. Over the years, Trimble has been rock-solid, and that continues to be the case. But the survey/construction industry is as tough as it has ever been. The competition is getting better, and new companies are entering the industry. Their market share has taken a hit over the last few years, but you knew that was coming. It wasn’t reasonable to think they could continue to dominate like they did in the ’90s. But don’t be lulled into thinking they’ve lost a step. Trimble is still doing what made them successful in the first place: focusing on solutions and not just GNSS receivers. They’ve been steadily acquiring small (mostly software) companies to dig themselves into niche markets. The exception was their $500 million acquisition of @Road. They’ve been doing well, so expect more of the same in 2008. Hemisphere GPS. Formerly CSI Wireless, Hemisphere does really well in the precision agriculture market. Their high-performance L1-code phase receivers are among the best. In the past two years, they’ve dumped everything not related to GPS and decided to become a “pure-play” GPS company. They rolled out an L1 RTK product and in September they announced their first L1/L2 RTK product. While not currently a player in survey/ construction, that will likely change in 2008. Look for them to partner with a survey software company as well as a survey instrument manufacturer or survey instrument distributor. Their aggressive pricing on L1 and L1/L2 technology will put price pressure on the established GNSS receiver manufacturers. NavCom. Owned by John Deere, Navcom has a similar challenge as Magellan. How interested in the survey/construction market are they? Deere bought them to focus on precision agriculture and that strategy has been pretty clear for the (Continued on page 60) January 2008 | GPS World 59 http://www.gpsworld.com http://www.gpsworld.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of GPS World - January 2008

GPS - January 2008 Contents Out in Front Expert Advice The Money-Go-Round u-Nav Latest Acquisition Apples to Apples Global SBAS 2008 GPS Receiver Survey Advertisers Index & Company Directory The Manufacturer's Road Year of the Who Working Indoor Up and Down Good, Better, Best Marketplace Classifieds Seen + Heard

GPS World - January 2008

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