Will Recession push TomTom back to Navigator for phones?

[Captain_Eric]

In Forbes Maganzine today, they say, among other things:

"The recessionary environment means that consumers are far more unlikely to spend on discretionary items like a Global Positioning System device for their car dashboard (see "The GPS Slump"), so TomTom needs to look at how it can tap into that Swiss army knife of functionality known as the cell phone, said Lee Simpson of Jefferies & Co. TomTom (other-otc: TMOAF - news - people ) essentially needs to refocus itself toward the software applications market.

Full story here:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/tomtom-gps-garmin-markets-equity-0224_technology_06.html?partner=alerts

What do you think? Will we Navigator guys/gals get another chance? Should we give TomTom another chance after all they put us through?

Eric

[gatorguy6996]

Purely my opinion, but I would not be surprised to see TT pushed into a bankruptcy filing by years end. The possible sale of TeleAtlas, removing a big drain on TT's financial resources, hit a big stump when they were forced to write off a third of TA's value. The one bright spot for TomTom is their software and application services, specifically contract/subscription possibilities. But they seem to be moving way too slowly on that front, allowing competitors such as Telenav and others to roll out well designed "live" services ahead of them in North America. Now with Garmin/Asus soon the enter the phone market, and with an excellent mobile app already in use, and Google Android devices soon to follow, TomTom has little room to delay further or risk being a non-factor in the mobile/live app's war.
_________________
Garmin 1695 / 255 / 760 w/MSN - Droid w/Google nav + Navigon - Navigon 8100T - Dakota10 - GPSMap76C - GeoMate Jr.

[Captain_Eric]

I hear you loud and clear.

The "Live/Mobile" market you mention is getting very interesting. The free Google maps and Microsoft Live Search Mobile are highly functional now in the emerging Location Based Services domain. And they can navigate, albeit without turn-by-turn voice (though Microsoft beeps when a turn is coming up). Free is hard to beat and it's "alive."

TomTom made some big bets that turned out bad.

Brankruptcy? Awe, what the heck, I'll say sure, why not! I certainly don't wish them well after the way they dropped Navigator.

[gatorguy6996]

Acording to a conference call with analysts following TomTom's release of 4th quarter financials, you can forget about an off-board navigation app from TomTom, as they've decided to concentrate on supplying TeleAtlas content and LBS services. No TomTom for the iPhone.

“If you look at our business strategy in mobile”, he said,” I don’t think we should aim to develops tens of small applications, with different phones, different form factors, different operating systems and different functions. That is an awful of complexities to deal with. I don’t think it would be a good strategy for us to try to do everything ourselves and build large engineering teams to do specific applications for very specific phones or network operators.

However, our strategy is based on the idea of making it simple for networks operators, handsets manufacturers and systems integrators to use Tele Atlas maps in their mobile applications and that involves not only the content but it also involves technology to be able to deploy that content in a very cost effective way that shortens the time to market and the cost of developing these".
_________________
Garmin 1695 / 255 / 760 w/MSN - Droid w/Google nav + Navigon - Navigon 8100T - Dakota10 - GPSMap76C - GeoMate Jr.

[Captain_Eric]

Well, there you have it. Good post!

[gatorguy6996]

Surprising they feel they can compete better with Google and Microsoft in LBS than with Garmin and Telenav in a mobile app.
_________________
Garmin 1695 / 255 / 760 w/MSN - Droid w/Google nav + Navigon - Navigon 8100T - Dakota10 - GPSMap76C - GeoMate Jr.

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!