TomTom gets nod to buy out TeleAtlas
TomTom has been cleared by the EC to acquire mapping company TeleAtlas. TeleAtlas provides digital maps and content forms the core of many Nav and LBS (location-based services) offering - Google Maps for example! TomTom on the other hand has sold nearly 20 mn ddevices, mostly the Sat Nav units. Since last year, TomTom has been utilising both user-generated content and TeleAtlas mapping to inform it's MapShare service, allowing users to feeback details of changes or errors on routes - kinda like a wikipedia for maps - well sort of. This represents a canny move by TomTom - with the advancement of GPS/Sat Nav on to Mobile devices, anyone in the purely hardware game is going to be facing a tough time - Nokia predicts sales of 35 mn devices with GPS on this year alone! The big three "traditional GPS" vendors - TomTom, Garmin, and Navman - account for 80% of the market currently - a market the handset vendors want a (big) piece of! Will peoples' requirements for "convergence" (multiple services on one device) lead to the traditional GPS vendors being edged out over time? It's anyone's guess, but one thing I do know is that my current TomTom unit is still in use for Sat Nav duties - for now…….! (Note: if anyone from TomTom, or any of the other manufacturers for that matter, wants to send me a review unit to test against a Mobile device, please do feel free - we are always open to giving our readers reviews of what device is best at a given feature!) [Via: PC Advisor ] --- Related Articles at IntoMobile:
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