> Industrial News > News   Australian GPS Dealers Combine to Provide Real-Time Traffic Service   The main GPS dealers in Australia have combined to provide the service SUNA, which will provide value-added real-time traffic services and advices to purchasers of such well-known GPS systems, such as TomTom, Navman, Garmin, Mio and Pioneer. SUNA provides deep urban arterial coverage rather than just focusing on inter-city freeway links such as services in Europe and will initially cover more than 75% of Australia’s urban population. The service is purchased for $100 to $150. Main sources of traffic data come from loop sensors embedded in the road pavement near intersections. The traffic data are analyzed every three minutes and analysis results are then sent to the in-vehicle GPS terminals. Comment:  If channel is the king, the channel in Australia is the emperor. The PND market scale in Australia is equivalent to that in China, but GPS channels in Australia apparently go further and deeper. The SUNA service is actually RDS TMC based real-time traffic information service, but if Telematics service including traffic service is promoted by neutral dealers, they can be more easily accepted by portable terminal providers. Accordingly, more terminals will be involved and services will be more easily popularized. Furthermore, dealers’ nationwide stores form a convenient and reliable charging channel and this is also a key factor for success of this business mode. The mode must be supported by a mature and healthy GPS terminal marketing environment. In china, however, this mode is restricted by many factors, for example, marketing channel of GPS terminals, especially portable terminals, are relatively scattered; piracy is still serious, etc.   Time:2008-08-29 Source:NaviForum Shanghai News Center Relative