15
Jun
2012
Pluggedin.co.uk: In it’s latest move, global giant Apple has joined forces with superior sat nav producer TomTom to provide maps and navigational information for their future devices. (more…)
Tag: TomTom
23
Sep
2011
GPS Business News: TomTom today announced that their mobile local search application TomTom places is now available in four additional countries: Germany, Belgium, Portugal, and Denmark. (more…)
30
Aug
2011
Engadget: If you’re a fan of TomTom’s Go Live series of nav units, you’ll get a kick out of what the company announced today. Hitting retail and online stores in October is “the world’s first portable navigation device with a suite of popular travel apps,” the Go Live 1535M. That’s right folks, this piece of dashboard flair will allow you to use Yelp, TripAdvisor, Expedia and Twitter all from the comfort of its 5-inch touchscreen. (more…)
25
May
2011
Engadget: TomTom‘s Go Live family got a little larger today, with the unveiling of the company’s new 800 series of PNDs. With the purchase of an 820 or 825 GPS, you’ll get a year’s worth of free access to HD Traffic, a speed camera alert system, local weather updates and all the rest of TomTom’s Live services. (more…)
07
Apr
2011
NaviGadget: TomTom last week announced three new GPS navigation systems for professional use – each with 5″ display.
They all offer mileage logging, time logging, status reports, and more which are part of TomTom’s WORKsmart system. Some other features include IQ routes technology, ECO routes, lane guidance, text-to-speech, and hands free calling. The difference is PRO 7150 TRUCK offers truck specific routing which accounts for cargo, heigh, weight restrictions for 15 European countries. PRO 9150 on the other hand has integrated WEBFLEET connection which doesn’t require the TomTom LINK.
Here is what the recommended pricing is like: PRO 7150 359 Euros, PRO 9150 429 Euros, and PRO 7150 TRUCK is 399 Euros.
04
Apr
2011
Engadget: Remember that line of VIA navigators we peeked back at CES? Looks like today’s your lucky day if you were holding off to procure one. TomTom just announced retail availability of the VIA 1505, 1535, 1405 and 1435 in North America, and all of ‘em can also be picked up with lifetime maps and / or lifetime traffic. (more…)
07
Jan
2011
GPS Business News: TomTom today unveiled in collaboration with Nike the Nike+ SportWatch GPS, a running watch scheduled to be at retail stores and online in the U.S. and the U.K. beginning April 1. Broader distribution is scheduled for July 1.
“It is part of TomTom Consumer’s strategy to move into the fast-growing sports and fitness market. This true partnership with Nike combines the strengths of two leading companies to deliver a game-changing product for runners,” said Corinne Vigreux, Managing Director of the TomTom Consumer business unit.
08
Dec
2010
(Credit: Automotive News)
Car Tech: Suppliers of navigation systems and their automaker customers are facing a tough new competitor. And the competitor is, literally, in their pocket.
That pesky device stuck to the windshield continues to cause trouble, too.
According to a J.D. Power and Associates study, 60 percent of people with a factory-installed navigation system also own either a portable device or a smartphone with a navigation system. In both cases, most consumers prefer to use the installed navigation system.
But one in four, given a choice, ignores the installed system–and that might spell trouble for the future.
Thirty-six percent of survey respondents had both a portable navigation device–such as those from TomTom International and Garmin–and a system installed in their vehicle. And 28 percent of consumers with both say they prefer to get directions from the portable device.
The pattern is similar for users of smartphones: twenty-four percent of respondents have them, and 28 percent of those with both a smartphone and an installed system say they prefer to use the phone.
The October survey of 17,517 drivers suggests no immediate serious trouble for suppliers that provide navigation systems. The list includes Clarion, Denso, Alpine Electronics, Pioneer, Harman International Industries, Hyundai Mobis, and Delphi Automotive.
But they shouldn’t be complacent, said Mike Marshall, director of automotive emerging technologies at J.D. Power. “It’s important that suppliers take into account some of the features that make these systems preferable,” Marshall said.
Those features include ease of use and more frequent updates for maps and points of interest.
Also, “Prices of factory-installed navigation systems need to stay competitive,” Marshall said.
Clarion appears to be meeting the challenge. The Cypress, Calif., unit of the Tokyo company partnered with Ford Motor to create navigation systems for the automaker’s vehicles. Several of those models led the industry in the Power study, which asked consumers to rate factory-installed navigation systems.
The top four systems in the survey were the ones in the Ford Fusion, Flex and Taurus and the Lincoln MKS. Clarion supplied all of them.
Clarion supplied 13 of the 50 vehicles with navigation systems that ranked better than the industry average. Denso and Harman, each had 11 vehicles in the top 50.
Marshall said that one of the factors in Clarion’s success is its partnership with Ford.
“Clarion also supplies the Nissan Infiniti vehicles, which aren’t scoring as high as the Ford vehicles but they are still doing well,” he said. “But it’s that true partnership that really brings it home, and it’s not one supplier all by itself.”
29
Oct
2010
GPS Business News: According to a new report by market research firm IMS Research, the role of the vehicle manufacturer in car navigation is forecast to increase.
Jack Bergquist, automotive analyst at IMS, believes that Renault’s success with its TomTom system, offered as standard on some trim levels, has demonstrated there is a large market for low-cost navigation units fitted to B and C category cars.
Consequently, IMS Research has forecast that fixed navigation will win the most revenues in the segment in the coming years, soaring to over $9 billion by 2017. Jack Bergquist further comments “The rise in navigation systems will be driven in two ways: with vehicle manufacturers offering lower cost factory-fitted systems; and with the high end of the market being served by connected systems with advanced functionality, such as live traffic information, live map updates, and online points-of-interest (PoI) databases.”
IMS Research also forecasts that global sales of connected telematics head units will grow by 20% a year for the foreseeable future.
01
Oct
2010
TechRadar: TomTom has announced a “manifesto” for reducing traffic. CEO Harold Goddijn announced the move at an event in London yesterday, alongside version 4.0 of the HD Traffic – that will also come to head unit TomTom-based devices, too.
Goddijn says that if 10 per cent of the TomTom userbase were to use HD traffic, it “would reduce journey times for everyone – five per cent in Europe. And that’s where we want to go. We are on a mission…we are committed to make this work and do our bit for society and our customers.
“Collectively we will make better use of existing road capacity.”
Goddijn added that the HD Traffic system can now report a problem to a driver within two minutes – a remarkable achievement. But those figures only apply to ‘connected’ drivers – only about one per cent of TomTom’s 45 million-strong userbase. About 20 per cent of that connected number – 200,000 – are British.
But Goddijn is undeterred and says that TomTom really can influence traffic flow in the future “[We're] trying to understand the problem of traffic…it’s something we can influence. It’s a problem we all know. It’s a global issue. It has a lot of consequences…it costs time, it’s a great stress.
“When we started TomTom we said we needed to understand this issue. It’s now time to start changing conventional wisdom. I don’t think that’s the case…I think we can change traffic and do something about it.”
The TomTom Traffic Manifesto is essentially a plan to get as many people using TomTom connected devices and so get better traffic information – and make more money from the extra subscription cost of connected devices, of course.
As part of the plan, TomTom will also supply traffic information to other sources, such as radio stations.
Goddijn also stated the organisation now has navigable data for 100 countries. The company takes an incredible 600 million speed measurements every day.
03
Sep
2010
Engadget: They may not have been the highlight of Sony’s IFA 2010 press conference, but the company’s new XNV head units deserve a place of their own, given they integrate full-blown TomTom GPS units and audio/video playback into their 7- and 6.1-inch WVGA touchscreens. Presently destined for Europe, the XNV-L77BT, XNV-770BT, XNV-L66BT and XNV-660BT will ship in November with TeleAtlas maps of 45 nations for a number of undisclosed prices, with each sporting Bluetooth, auxiliary and USB jacks, DivX playback and a DVD drive. The presumably-more-expensive “L” models also come with the usual array of traffic and weather alerts plus a Google-powered local search function, and all four decks sport a music recommendation engine that reportedly changes track based on your mood… though how the system measures your emotional attentions, we’re not quite sure, and hope to find out soon. Press release after the break.
30
Apr
2010
CNET: TomTom’s Go Live 1000 navigation device, set for a European launch this summer, will offer real-time connection for traffic, weather, and fuel info on the continent.
The connectivity across 33 European countries will come via Vodafone. That service will be free for the first year and cost 50 euros (about $67) annually after that. The GPS device itself doesn’t have a price tag or exact launch date yet.
The Go Live 1000 will feature a 500MHz ARM 11 CPU, 4GB of storage, 128MB of RAM, and a new user interface based on the open-source WebKit browser engine.
With TomTom’s IQ Routes tech, the device will review past traffic patterns to plan routes. TomTom’s HD Traffic system will analyze and show traffic flows and jams to continually determine the fastest route, the company said. The device will be able to download updates and new services remotely via an integrated modem.
The Go Live 1000 will be TomTom’s first GPS device to offer a capacitive touch screen a la those found on smartphones, along with high-resolution graphics. Traditional GPS screens have sometimes been hard to push and thus less responsive.
There is no word yet on whether or when the device may reach countries outside of Europe.