Navigon to North America: Get Lost

GPS maker Navigon has decided to withdraw from the North American market, although it will continue to support existing customers.

Just two months after unveiling new GPS units that learn from users’ driving habits, GPS maker Navigon has apparently decided to abandon the North American market, owing to aggressive pricing pressures from competitors like TomTom and Garmin.

“Due to the difficult economic environment and the aggressive pricing we have decided to withdraw from the PND business in North America for the time being,” said Navigon CEO Egon Minear in a statement to GPS Business News. We are however not closing down our Chicago office which will continue to serve our automotive and mobile phone businesses in North America.”

Navigon is based in Germany, and launched its GPS products in North America in 2007. Navigon managed to climb to fourth place in the U.S. GPS market with a market share of 7.7 percent in the first quarter of 2008. The company was the first to include lifetime traffic service with its products, now a staple of many high-end navigation products.

Navigon hasn’t released any information on how many positions will be cut as a result of withdrawing from the North American market. Navigon’s scaleback follows on the heels of GPS maker Mio making significant cuts to its overall U.S. workforce.