Slashgeo

All Points Blog links to an AP article which analyse Garmin GPS devices and their competition worlwide. From the article: "Research firm Strategy Analytics estimates that the number of GPS devices sold worldwide — including personal navigation units and applications built into cell phones and hand-held computers — will grow from 18 million last year to 88 million in 2010. [...] Looking ahead, Garmin officials see the next big challenge isn’t new competitors but breaking more into the European market, where it has a little more than 10 percent share."

ixcer writes "A joint press release announces that TomTom, the world’s largest navigation solution provider, will acquire Tele Atlas, the biggest data provider for navigation systems, including Google, Yahoo!, AOL and Nokia. The announcement starts this way... "TomTom N.V. (“TomTom”) and Tele Atlas N.V. (“Tele Atlas” or the “Company”), jointly announce that the expectation is justified that an agreement can be reached in connection with a public offer by TomTom for all outstanding shares of Tele Atlas at an offer price of € 21.25 in cash, (the “Offer Price”) per ordinary share (the “Offer”).

The Supervisory Board and the Management Board of Tele Atlas (the “Boards”), after having duly considered the strategic, financial and social aspects of the proposed transaction, support the intended Offer and conclude that the Offer is in the best interests of the shareholders and all other stakeholders of Tele Atlas. The Boards of Tele Atlas will, when the Offer is made by TomTom, recommend acceptance of the Offer by the shareholders of Tele Atlas."" Update: 07/23 17:41 GMT by S : All Points Blogs provides more links such as the Reuters article.

GIS Lounge links to a BusinessWeek article named "The Paperless Map Is the Killer App". From the article: "First, cell phones made the streetcorner pay phone obsolete. Now they're doing away with the need to ask for directions. A surge in phones with built-in satellite navigation capability has sparked a wave of creative mapping and locating services. And it has set off a multibillion-dollar scramble by companies to buy up digital navigation technologies. [...] As more players jump into navigation, it has triggered a wave of deal-making that reflects the nervousness of established players. Makers of car-based or other dedicated (nonphone) devices worry that competitors will gain control of essential mapping data, which show names and locations of streets, homes, restaurants, and hotels and must be regularly updated." Related are the 162 million navigation-ready cell phones hitting the streets this year.

A few geoblogs discussed the European GALILEO project and the news are more or less good. Amongst the entries, you have GeoCarta underlines the 2.4 billion euros of fresh money sent to GALILEO required to continue development, from The Register: "States voted to back a €2.4bn funding deal, drawing cash from unused farming subsidies, and restructuring research and industrial spending for the year. This means the European rival to the US military's GPS system can go ahead, but no extra public funds will be written into the EU's budget to pay for it." V1 also discuss this impressive amount of leftovers and provides other links, V1 also make a relation to the U.S. updated GPS III satellites: "The US military is working on super-powerful updates to its GPS satellite navigation technology to try to trump the rival European Galileo project which just received key funding, experts say." Not as much tightly related, APB links to survey indicating Garmin is the #1 maker of portable navigation systems, consumers say. Update: 11/30 20:12 GMT by S : Let's not forget GLONASS, here's a recent article where we learn: "Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, wants to spend at least $60 billion over the next 10 years to make Russia a global high-tech titan [...]"

Adam Grabowski writes "Recently Mike Frey, NAVTEQ Principal Architect became involved in representing NAVTEQ on the JSR 293 Location API 2.0 expert group. JSR 293 is the follow-up to the JSR 179 Location API for Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) proposed by Nokia in 2002 and released in September 2003. JSR 293 adds services for geocoding, navigation and map display, filling out the suite of services needed to develop location-based applications on a mobile device. It increases the number of Java classes and interfaces from 13 to 40. Participating on the JSR 293 Location API 2.0 expert group is exciting because of the opportunity to contribute to the development of a standard that will enable Java applications to run with little or no change on many different mobile devices and carriers. Download the article here — http://developer.navteq.com/getDocument.do?docId=3119. Note, requires a NN4D login." Editor's note: we're working on giving direct access to these documents to Slashgeo registered members without the need of a separate NN4D account. This feature may however not be available until late next fall.

According to the Kansas City Business Journal, Garmin International Inc. has received federal certification for a new aviation technology. In obscured conditions, they can project a simulated cockpit window view to assist the pilots. They claim this technology will help increase safety and reduce pilot workload. I can certainly see the appeal to this. Who hasn't wished for the exact same thing when driving in the blinding rain or thick fog?

All I can say is, I sure hope the data is correct!

An Anonymous Voxel writes "Chicago Tribune has a writeup on some emerging problems in Navteq's aquisition by Nokia: "European antitrust regulators have raised concerns over the acquisition of Chicago-based digital map provider Navteq by Finnish cell phone-maker Nokia, delaying an $8.1 billion deal that is poised to marry the world's largest digital navigator and handset manufacturer. [...] European Commission said it "has opened a detailed investigation" into the deal after a preliminary review prompted "serious doubts" over how competition in the region would be affected. The antitrust body has until Aug. 8 to make a decision on the matter."" Related stories copied below.

I admit this is partly a rehash of this January story, but The Map Room offers nice simple graphs on the online mapping services and GPS devices marketshares. In short, MapQuest and Garmin (in the U.S.) are way ahead their competition. From TMR: "MapQuest continued to lead with more than 50 percent of the market, with Google Maps second at 22 percent, and Yahoo and Microsoft trailing. [...] survey conducted in February of the U.S. market gave Garmin a 56 percent share of the consumer GPS market [...]" MapQuest also recently added current traffic conditions to their mapping services, something Google Maps has since over a year. See also related stories below.

A few geoblogs covered the announcement by Garmin, traditionally focusing on GPS devices, of a smartphone named Nuviphone [multiple screenshots], due later in 2008. From the Wikipedia stub: "The Garmin nüvifone is an Internet-enabled mobile phone and personal navigation device manufactured by Garmin. It makes use of a touchscreen with virtual keyboards and buttons, similar to Apple's iPhone." It has GPS capabilities, from the PR: "“This is the breakthrough product that cell phone and GPS users around the world have been longing for — a single device that does it all.” The nüvifone is an innovative mobile phone that has a wide range of advanced yet easy-to-use features. The all touchscreen device is the first of its kind to integrate premium 3.5G mobile phone capability with an internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging, and personal navigation functions in one device. When powered on, the 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons — “Call,” “Search,” and “View Map” which allow the user to effortlessly master the nüvifone’s functions." Some related stories below.

The Map Room links to a Wall Street Journal article on the digital roads duopoly between NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas. From the article: "Neither bid could be justified by the financial performance of the companies -- Navteq is modestly profitable while Tele Atlas is losing money -- but analysts say the buyers were willing to pay a "strategic premium" because of the value of mapping data to all players in the GPS industry. Now investors and regulators are raising questions about the implications of the two deals." See also related stories below.

All 72 countries of NAVTEQ's map database will now be available to Yahoo! according to an announcement made by NAVTEQ on GisUser.com this morning. Among the back and forth of "we love you" and "no, we love you more" quotes in the announcement is this from Jeremy Kreitler, director of product management, Yahoo! Maps,

"As we continue to expand the range of sites that integrate Yahoo! Maps, particularly in the mobile and international areas, NAVTEQ's single global specification makes integration simple and allows us to put more of our focus on building great products."

Here's a few geonews items mainly related to cellphones and location-based services. Spatial Sustain informs us of the new "send to GPS" feature linking Google Maps and TomTom devices. Second, MacRumors discuss an Engaget story about TomTom (possibly, it's a rumor!) developing a GPS module for Apple's iPhone. Meanwhile, APB links to a NYT article wondering if Nokia can make serious inroads in the American market of cellphones and location-based services, and finally, APB runs a short entry on TeleNav and Navizon offering free small location-based services applications. Several related previous stories copied below.

In case the news hasn't reached you guys yet, Nokia is in talks to purchase NAVTEQ. I heard it from a 3rd party source, but it seems like it's shaking things up a bit (for them at least). A quick google search reveals some news activity today about it: read more on Bloomberg and Trading Markets. Update: 10/01 20:03 GMT by S : APB discuss the impact of the deal on Garmin. Slashdot discuss the acquisition. Expect more analysis from various medias in the coming days.

As expected, the Nokia acquisition of NAVTEQ made ink flow. I'm to blame for not having linked to the official press release in my previous coverage. Amongst the reactions, here's Vector One short analysis, GeoCarta discuss how this acquisition could mean trouble for Garmin, and then there's All Points Blog extensive coverage: links to many media reactions, link to why Nokia should now buy Skype, link to why Google never considered buying NAVTEQ themselves and the impact on the price paid by TomTom for TeleAtlas.

It's my pleasure to announce that NAVTEQ Network for Developers(TM) (NN4D), introduced a year ago, is an active supporter of Slashgeo.org. This is great news for our thousands of geospatial professional readers. It opens the door to the sharing of additional pertinent content from NAVTEQ and will increase Slashgeo's visibility. We are also planning a few new related features which may interest several of our readers. No money is involved in the deal and rest reassured that Slashgeo will stay neutral and continue aggregating and discussing geonews from the geospatial community as a whole.

NAVTEQ today announced that MapQuest, has expanded its agreement with NAVTEQ. Under the new agreement, MapQuest now has access to all 73 countries in the NAVTEQ map database, as well as future country releases. MapQuest will utilize NAVTEQ data in both its Internet and mobile applications.

You can read the entire announcement at GISCafe.