Personal navigating device makers are shifting strategies as they face increasing competition from increasingly capable mobile apps, U.S. analysts say.

Companies like Tom Tom and Garmin are scrambling to hold on in a market expected to decline more than 40 percent by 2016, they say.

"Most smartphones now come embedded with free navigation applications such as Google Maps," Lim Shiyang of ABI research in New York told telecomengine.com

"Although free, these navigation applications have started to match the performance of PNDs on a number of levels."

One advantage of smartphone applications is that they can be connected to the cellular network and the Internet, allowing their developers to create much more sophisticated maps and navigational services.

PND makers are having to find new niches for their products, analysts say.

"PND vendors are adjusting strategies to deal with slowing PND sales," ABI's Dominique Bonte says. "TomTom, for example, is liaising with automotive insurance companies to provide individual driver statistics via PNDs for more accurate premium pricing for fleets while others, such as Garmin, are making inroads into mobile applications."

The PND market is moving away from mass market consumer goods to becoming low volume, high value, as shown by the fact that now nearly one-third of all PND products offered on the market are priced above $500 mark, ABI Research says.