GPS-ready cellular phones have reached a stage of rapid growth and will generate more than $50 billion in worldwide revenues in 2008, rising to $100 billion in 2012, according to a new study by ABI Research.

In units, the GPS handset market will grow from around 240 million in 2008 to more than 550 million handset shipments in 2012. At present, most current GPS-enabled handsets are CDMA devices, but more GPS-enabled handsets for 3G/WCDMA networks will start to appear in the market from 2008 onwards.

Because of advances in chipsets and lower cost technology, ABI Research believes that cellular GPS is now poised for rapid growth over the next five years. It further expects "significant improvements" in GPS accuracy, boot-up times and indoor reception from GPS technology