China's satnav industry grows 29 pct in 2015

The output value of China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry grew 29.2 percent year on year in 2015, with the country's self-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System making a big contribution, according to a white paper.

The output value reached 173.5 billion yuan (26 billion U.S. dollars), nearly 20 percent of it from the BeiDou application, showed the white paper released by the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location Based Service (GNSS and LBS) Association of China on Wednesday.

In 2015, 466 million navigation and positioning end products were sold across China, including 440 million smartphones, the association said.

As overseas manufacturers have begun large-scale production of chips compatible with the BeiDou system, BeiDou has been used more extensively in smartphones, tablet computers, wearable devices and other products.

Though China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry is still at an early stage of development, its output value will continue growing at an annual rate of 20-30 percent in the coming years, the white paper predicted.

Source: Xinhua News Agency