Friday, November 6. 2009

Garmin: Sitting on Hands or Smart Like a Fox?

GPS Business News asks if Garmin is sitting on its hands after Google's announcement of free navigation for Android. Alas the article is behind a wall, but the question is a good one. (And I'm sure the analysis is, too.)

But I have only public sources to cite and this one is interesting. Steve Chuang writing in Taiwan Economic News suggests Garmin is going for #1 in Taiwan in 2010 by launching three new devices. It'll try to move from #2 and pass Mio at #1. TomTom is #3. Part of the plan is using "preloaded maps of Taiwan, in a bid to use the self-developed maps to boost its brand recognition with local consumers. " In the past the company licensed maps from a publishing company, but now is creating the maps itself. Further, "Institutional investors indicated that by focusing more on independently developing PND maps for Taiwan, Garmin is likely to threaten the leader Mio in the market and may outstrip it by the end of this year."

There are also reports indicating that brand name satnav and white box satnav manufacturers may drop prices to $US69 and $US49 for the holidays to compete with Google.

- Taiwan Economic News
- DigiTimes

Wednesday, November 4. 2009

Quote of the Week

"Satnav maps from Tele Atlas AND Navteq incorrectly show Ashdown Terrace in South Tidworth as a through road with a connection to Station road, see here when in actual fact it is a dead end."

The story is from PocketGPSWorld and details how locals have put up sign to help prevent trapped trucks. The funny part? "Tele Atlas AND Navteq." Why is it not "and" or "and" - since AND is Automotive Navigation Data, yet another data provider! Or, did they mean that AND also has it wrong?

Garmin Profits Up (despite SatNav chaos)

It may be a bit hard to fathom since TomTom saw losses based on lower margins that Garmin saw profit increase on what? Higher margins! "Garmin Ltd.'s (GRMN) third-quarter profit rose 26% as improved margins more than offset a moderate decline in revenue."

The stock is up 64% this year.

- WSJ

Tuesday, November 3. 2009

Podcast: With Geodata, Developers, not Consumers Rule

If consumers think of geodata as a commodity, what does that say for its future? What are the key data relationships? And what, if anything, will differentiate one offering from another? Our editors ponder these questions in light of evidence that consumers know and care little about who makes, manages and updates basemaps.

Thursday, October 29. 2009

My Thoughts on Google Navigation Beta

Last I looked there some 300 news articles about Google announcement yesterday of the beta of Google Navigation for the Android (and perhaps other) platforms. Stocks of PND players like TomTom and Garmin were down (though there were other reasons for the slipping stock prices, too). Mostly, though the sentiment was "Google will be killing off another industry." Perhaps.

After a day of watching I have just a few thoughts.

Back when Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ were acquired by TomTom and Nokia the general sentiment was that no one could possibly challenge "the big two." Why? Collecting and confirming mapping datasets for the large areas they already cover (with very good, if not perfect, accuracy) was too hard and costly and they had such a big headstart. Smaller players, like AND and Germany's United Maps, have toughed it out, working to state their differentiations (better licensing for the former and feet on the ground to fill in the holes for the latter). Neither has taken on the big two, but my sense after speaking to senior company reps recently is that they are doing fine, thank you. No, no one seemed to think that Google, the company that wants to organize the world's information, was going to work to collect and conflate and update geodata. But, apparently, we were not thinking like Google. Sure Google still licenses some data (parcels and imagery and even some road data) but clearly, they've taken on the big two, the two that now have no only a headstart with data, but also a headstart in cell phone hardware and navigation, when paired with their larger owners.

My other thought as the errors in Google's dataset become the butt of James Fee's jokes and real concern by those in Canton, Ohio, is that most people are doing just fine with the data. I'm one of them. Even though we at Directions Media were the ones to contact Tele Atlas to confirm Google was using its own data in the U.S. a few weeks back, I use Google Maps exactly as I have in the past. In fact, two weeks ago I routed myself to, then printed out Google Maps of key areas in a marathon my friends were running north of Boston. No issues. In fact, until I returned home from the event, it didn't occur to me that maybe, just maybe that was not such a great choice. For most people, for most things, Google Maps seems to work fine. And, as many are pointing out, online navigation services that use NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas data have errors and sometimes route "oddly." Google has an edge that will likely get their quirks fixed better and faster: the "report a problem" button. I've written time and time again how the Yahoo and MapQuest and Ask.com (and other services) don't provide direct ways to report errors. Nor do NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas. Oh, the websites are out there (and TomTom does have MapShare). The number of people using those tools can't possibly compare to those using Google's in app "report a problem." The tools never got the buzz that Google Maps is getting, either.

Finally, on the day Google rolled out the new app NAVTEQ reported on a survey (which I guess it financed, though it was not stated in the press release) that showed that 72% of users of nav tools it powers are "ok" with ads in the apps and some 19% click on the ads. Another 6% actually visit the businesses. So, it seems Google's business model (advertising) is a good one.

Thursday, October 22. 2009

Forrester: 1/3 Have GPS Nav (of some kind)

A mail-based survey of 5,600 people reveals that 31% North American adults say they own "a portable navigation device (PND) or in-car solution or mobile phone app."

Also noteworthy: PND ownership grew at 8 percent in 2009 over 2008, but phone- based solutions grew at 49%. In-car devices experienced a 3 percent growth over 2008.

- Twice