Europe's largest maker of portable navigation devices, TomTom n.v., saw a fourth quarter profit increase of 12 million euros thanks to a one-off tax fall of 80 million euros ($107 million), the Dutch company said in a statement Tuesday.

However, fourth-quarter sales fell 19 percent from a year earlier to 289 million euros ($388 million) as automotive revenue dropped 21 percent to 44 million euros ($59 million) and hardware revenue plunged 24 percent to 191 million euros ($256 million).

The total revenue for the year 2012 went down 17 percent to 1.057 million euros ($1420 million).

TomTom sells fewer of its navigation boxes as people increasingly use their mobile phone for navigation.

This year the company expects a further decline between 15 and 20 per cent in the sales of navigation devices. The sale of these boxes is still the main source of income for TomTom.

To compensate for this decline, the company increasingly focuses on cooperation with car manufacturers to include the installation of TomTom devices in new cars. This has become difficult now that fewer new cars are sold. .