Garmin, TomTom Settle One Fight, In Order To Concentrate On A Different Fight

from the just-merge-and-get-it-over-with dept

TomTom and Garmin have been involved in a really nasty intellectual property battle over the past few years, involving multiple lawsuits over multiple issues in multiple locations. It really was a case of patent nuclear war, where both sides were throwing whatever they could think of at each other. However, now that the two sides have something more concrete to fight over than market share, it seems they've decided to settle all of their intellectual property battles and simply focus on fighting over who gets to own Tele Atlas. Of course, as some people are beginning to notice, this may be a pointless battle, as both companies are going to face increasing competition from the mobile device arena -- especially from the likes of Nokia who forced Garmin to bid for Tele Atlas after announcing the acquisition of Tele Atlas competitor Navteq. So it really might not matter who wins the battle for Tele Atlas, as the market for standalone navigation devices may start to disappear.

Filed Under: location based services, mobile phones, navigation, patents, settlements
Companies: garmin, tele atlas, tomtom

Garmin Doesn't Want To Be Left Without Maps... Bids On Tele Atlas

from the musical-mapping-chairs dept

Over the summer, navigation device maker TomTom announced plans to buy Tele Atlas, one of the two leading providers of mapping data. Earlier this month, Nokia announced plans to buy Navteq, the other major provider. That resulted in immediate speculation about how Garmin (TomTom's main competitor) would respond. Apparently, the answer is with lots and lots of money. Garmin has now put in an unsolicited bid of $3.3 billion for Tele Atlas, hoping to outbid its rival by 15%. So, at this point, a game of musical chairs begins, with Nokia, Garmin and TomTom fighting it out over the two mapping data providers. Since both TomTom and Garmin seem to feel that they need to have Tele Atlas, don't be surprised to see the price keep going up.

Filed Under: gps, mapping data, navigation data
Companies: garmin, navteq, nokia, teleatlas, tomtom

Nokia Finds The Shortest Route To Navigation Info: Buys Navteq For $8 Billion

from the turn-right-$8-billion-ahead dept

Nokia made a bit of a splash this morning by announcing plans to buy digital mapping/navigation firm Navteq for $8.1 billion. Navteq is definitely the leading player in the space, followed by TeleAtlas -- and the two companies basically dominate the market. Earlier this year, you may recall, navigation device maker TomTom announced plans to buy TeleAtlas, though that deal is not yet completed.

Many people are speculating on what this could mean for Garmin, TomTom's main rival in the navigation device space. Garmin uses Navteq for its maps, but it seems hard to believe that Nokia would simply cut off Garmin. That would take a huge chunk of revenue out of the deal, making it a lot less worthwhile. What's much more interesting is how this shows the strength of Nokia's commitment to really leveraging mobile devices for location-based services and navigation information. People have talked about such things for years, and Nokia's purchase certainly suggests that they're about to make a big push into moving navigation info and location-based services out of a separate device and into mobile phones.

Filed Under: location based services, mobile phones, navigation
Companies: garmin, navteq, nokia, teleatlas, tomtom

GPS Maker Hopes To Harness The Power Of The Community

from the g-p-us dept

The GPS navigation unit market is one that's largely commoditized, with little apparent differentiation to many consumers among products. It's also a highly competitive market, particularly for makers of standalone systems, who must compete against car manufacturers' built-in offerings, and now also against mobile-phone based systems. But TomTom, the world's biggest vendor of standalone GPS units, is hoping to set itself apart from its rivals by harnessing the power of its community of users. It's made a bid for Tele Atlas, a digital mapmaker, and once it owns the company and its maps, it will be able to incorporate all sorts of user-generated information into its maps and navigation units. Users will be able to notify the company of changes to roads and conditions, or to update information on points of interest, such as restaurants that have opened or closed. This sort of "crowdsourcing" has gotten a lot attention over the past few years, though many implementations of it leave a lot to be desired. But TomTom's idea could be a pretty good one. Not only does it help the company improve its products and differentiate from its rivals at a relatively low cost, users also derive a tangible benefit from participation in the way of updated and more accurate maps and info, so they have some incentive to participate.

Filed Under: crowdsourcing, gps, navigation, user generated content
Companies: tele atlas, tomtom