AMSTERDAM, 27/10/06 - TomTom has raised its full-year sales forecast for the second time this year. The car navigation systems producer is now expecting its 2006 sales to turn out at 1.3 to 1.4 billion euros. In April it was projecting 1.1 to 1.3 billion euros.

More and more people are equipping their cars with a navigation system, further encouraged by prices coming down. TomTom now expects to sell 4.4 to 4.7 million systems this year, up from its earlier forecast of 3.6 to 3.9 million.

TomTom announced the upward revision of its sales forecast yesterday at the third-quarter results presentation. In this period, the company sold nearly 1.2 million systems, over double the number a year earlier. Net profit grew to 73 million euros from 59 million in the 2005 third quarter. Sales advanced to 353 million from 250 million.

The average price TomTom receives from retailers for a system did fall rapidly, from 402 euros to 285 euros. This is mainly due to the launch of the cheaper ONE model, not yet on the market a year ago.

TomTom still claims a market share of over 50 percent on the European market. Investors in Amsterdam reacted positively to the quarterly results.