Panasonic didn’t spoil us with navigation devices until now, but their first Sherpa has arrived and is now lying on my table. It had a time on my windshield too, providing an interesting experience. The navigation market is growing powerfully and this fact has to be taken into consideration by large companies too. Manufacturers with a lengthy history have started making car navigation devices one after the other. Besides old-timer companies, there are lots of others who have entered the business, like Samsung, Sony, Asus and now Panasonic too. The question is that why have they been waiting for so long and why did they let other companies gain a significant market share. It’s clear that now it will cost them much more to enter the market, as they have to buy a part. This has been a great mistake from them; they didn’t believe enough in the business and this will cost them much.

Of course a brand can sell lots of things, but in navigation it won’t matter much if we say: this is a Panasonic. Only response we get is a resigned wave.

Let’s see what is needed for a successful navi: powerful hardware, good software, precise and detailed map, user-friendly interface, stable passive holder, proper price-tag. This is the first time Panasonic makes such a device; no wonder everything’s not perfect. However Panasonic didn’t start up today, the patient could even have survived this operation. This new business segment is not promoted very much yet, at least I didn’t see anything, even though I have all the harmful habits of the targeted consumers: net-addiction, TV watching, button-mania, reading billboards in a traffic jam and I even have a look at free flyers until I reach the first trashcan.