CEBIT-German satnav market not saturated-TomTom

HANOVER, Germany, March 3 (Reuters) - The German navigation device market is not saturated and is showing double-digit percentage growth rates this quarter, a board member of navigation device maker TomTom (TOM2.AS) said on Monday.

"I see no signs of market saturation in Germany," TomTom Chief Operating Officer Alexander Ribbink said in Hanover on the eve of Europe's biggest technology fair, CeBIT.

"You can see that in a market like Germany that has high penetration, you can still get good growth," Ribbink said.

German IT industry association Bitkom warned earlier on Monday that demand for digital consumer electronics devices such as routefinders was slowing, contributing to slower overall industry growth in 2008. [ID:nL03351883]

Only about 20 percent of the 210 million cars on western Europe's roads are equipped with some kind of navigation device, according to TomTom.

"We saw growth in 2007 and we see double-digit growth in Q1 2008 in the (German) navigation devices market overall," Ribbink said.

TomTom dominates the European market with a 50 percent market share.

UK retailer DSG International DSGI.L had spooked investors in January with comments that its UK navigation device volumes had fallen slightly in the fourth quarter, sparking fears the British market was beginning to mature.

TomTom has said it believed this was a problem specific to DSG. (Reporting by Nicola Leske, writing by Niclas Mika)