According to a new study by ABI Research, the market of GPS-enabled mobile phones will experience a rapid growth in the next five years. This market is projected to deliver more than $50 billion next year and will double in 2012 to reach $100 billion.

In terms of units, shipments of GPS-enabled handsets will reach 240 million in 2008 and will expand to 550 million in 2012.

The ongoing consolidation in the mobile industry is viewed as a strong driver of growth. Nokia’s acquisition of navigation company NAVTEQ is an indication of the handset manufacturer’s direction to make GPS a standard mobile phone feature.

Aside from Nokia, several other player navigation companies were recently acquired. CSR took over NordNav Technologies and Cambridge Positioning Systems while Broadcom acquired of Global Locate. Moreover, the ongoing scuffle between 2 navigation companies Garmin and TomTom over Tele Atlas further confirms the importance of GPS in the near future.

This consolidation is just one of the growth drivers. Another factor is low cost. Chipset manufacturers have already developed the technology improve the accuracy of GPS and integrate it to mobile phones at a very competitive cost. Additionally, mobile vendors have shown growing interest in GPS and other GPS-centric applications.

While the growth will come mostly from big players like Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola, small handset manufacturers like HTC and Quanta are also adding GPS features in their recent and upcoming mobile phones.

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