OBD Aftermarket Telematics Subscribers to Exceed 117 Million by 2019

 March 25, 2014—The number of subscribers to OnBoard Diagnostics (OBD) aftermarket telematics solutions is expected to reach 117.8 million in 2019, according to a new report from ABI Research.

That figure is up from 9.5 million subscribers in 2014.

“OBD-dongle telematics devices are gaining momentum in North America and Europe in segments such as UBI, fleet management, and consumer telematics,” said Dominique Bonte, vice president and practice director at ABI Research. “Their plug-and-play characteristics, low cost and flexibility for a range of applications including diagnostics and maintenance, location tracking and trip logging, driving behavior monitoring, and even in-car Wi-Fi make them a great fit for aftermarket telematics players in a still largely underpenetrated market.”

Bonte said the push is being led by carriers such as Verizon, Sprint and AT&T.

ABI Research said North America and Europe are the leading regions because OBD vehicle ports are mandatory.

OBD solutions will also face competition from aftermarket telematics solutions based on smartphones connecting directly to the vehicle OBD port via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi adapters.

The report said the main weakness of OBD solutions is their closed nature, both because OEMs do not expose all vehicle data in a standard format and because third party developers have difficulty creating a set of applications to extend functionality.

For the complete report, visit the ABI Research website.