CNET points to a study conducted by market research firm iSuppli that signals the beginning of the end for personal navigation devices thanks to the increasing availability of smartphones that support any number of GPS-enabled applications. While this is a rather bold statement considering the market is still going strong – some 114 million PND sets are predicted to be in use by the end of 2009, compared with 57.8 million navigation-enabled smartphones – it’s hard not to see the inherent logic given the trends in the consumer electronics market towards multifunctional devices.

But as the author cleverly notes, what about when you need to use your smartphone, as well, a phone and still want the navigation component? I see this particular scenario, while something that may come up on occasion, as rather shaky ground to base the future of an industry on, not to mention, there’s other factors to keep in mind.

Seeing as how these devices are, for all intents and purposes intended solely for use while driving, we have to look at tendencies in the automobile industry. And I expect navigation systems, to increasingly become standard, cutting into a huge portion of the standalone PND market, which as noted above, is also being threatened by the smartphone. So unless they come down dramatically in price or find additional relevancy in our lives, I have to agree that their days are numbered.

[image via mujitra]