The GPS market in Morocco


The GPS market  in Morocco


It sells about 10,000 units per year against a target of 100,000 a few years ago. The mentality of Moroccans, the price and the lack of precision in mapping are among the brakes raised by professionals. Implement traffic information could boost the sector.


The GPS market in Morocco has not kept its promises. Very optimistic expectations of professionals who had expected more than 100,000 units per year have quickly given way to more modest expectations. Overall, the market is estimated by industry player to about 10,000 units per year for a turnover between 15 and 25 million dirhams. Paltry figure if we compare it to existing vehicles and 120,000 new vehicles put into circulation every year now. However, upon his arrival on the market, the GPS has created a strong enthusiasm from investors who are eager to get their product without considering the overall quality of the solution offered. This precipitation was behind a big wave of disappointment that accompanied the GPS in Morocco. "The most important GPS is the quality and accuracy of the mapping and therefore its regular updating. If I enter an address in the GPS and it does not know or he knows but misplaces the card, the product is of no use to the user, "says Hassan Tazi, GPSMaroc manager who sells the MyWay solution. In Rabat and Casablanca, for example, the tramway involves a change in the direction of movement not only of streets and avenues in its wake but also 5 or 6 further intersections.

GPS is also facing competition from increasingly marked smartphones and in-dash GPS (built cars), not forgetting the informal market that also flowers in this sector. This has led some providers to put the key under the mat after seeing their product be shameless hack.

The other reason for the mixed results is the behavior of the GPS Moroccan face orientation and navigation. "The Moroccan can afford to get to an appointment late and know that whatever happens he just lower his window to ask for directions," says the jest Sâad Filali, DG Movitec.

Corporate sales represent 80% of market

"There are more people moving out of their city who opt for these navigation systems," he adds. Marketing of GPS individuals remains quite complicated because it requires a lot of effort, whether in terms of communication and awareness and in terms of the means implemented to ensure quality mapping. All these efforts require significant investments and companies specializing in navigation GSP can not recover their costs through the B2B market which accounts for most cases more than 80% of the activity. Radically different from the navigation market for individuals there proposes solutions such as tracking who is to equip the entire fleet client tracers that will enable him to know in real time the route, speed, time of stop, consumption and other information related to the course. Or it can be used on the ground in the investigation geomarketing to identify areas of interest, they are banking networks, networks of retail centers, service stations ...

The devices sell for less than 1000 DH for entry level

Nevertheless, for individuals, it is far from the excitement, and, despite the falling prices of GPS devices that still remain out of reach for some scholarships. You can buy a device entry level to less than 1000 DH and the price can easily rise to 5000 DH for the more expensive units. "In its current form, the market is still very scattered and too small to invest heavily," says Saad Filali. Offer new services such as traffic information may be the only option to revive the interest of the GPS. "Today, there is still no data on road traffic in Morocco.

There is a great need for a database that will offer complete, reliable and able to go back in real time, "said Hassan Tazi. Possible to set up through a partnership between the public and private provider, the database can have multiple applications in several different areas. This dynamic has been proven in many countries and allows the government, once the databases created, use them to offer value-added services to citizens. An idea of ​​the easiest to implement, especially for thin traffic and avoid congestion.

Addressing public: a real headache ...
We can not talk without speaking navigation address public. Numbering inconsistency, duplication, omissions ... the structure of the Moroccan public address presents a real challenge for publishers mapping. For example, about 30% of casablancaises streets have no name and there are over 50 who are of the "Street 1", according Geoconseil. Added to this are the numbers in the boulevards that respect no logical odd and even coexist on the same side while some numbers are not displayed and others appear more than once. Finally, the lack of standardization of the translation of street names from Arabic to French, many names are misspelled. However, this has never been big problem with the very important field experience available factors in Morocco. It becomes less obvious when a computer is trying to find an address because it is faced with inconsistencies with which consist easily factor in everyday life.


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