Industry News
- The Ordnance Survey and the Private Sector
- The business practices of the Ordnance Survey vis-à-vis its private-sector competition are being criticized. Thierry Gregorius’s so-called “hard-hitting analysis” is actually fairly even-handed: criticizing the rather two-faced nature of the OS as both government agency and commercial enterprise, but also…
- The Ordnance Survey’s Cartography Team
- The Ordnance Survey Blog has the first of a three-part series that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the OS’s cartography team. The team, says the blog, is “responsible for deriving and maintaining cartographic databases, and providing the finished data…
- The WSJ on OpenStreetMap, Bing, and MapQuest
- The Wall Street Journal takes a look at why OpenStreetMap has been getting attention (and resources) from two large, and very commercial, mapping providers: Bing (Microsoft) and MapQuest (AOL). “For Microsoft and AOL’s MapQuest unit, OpenStreetMap presents an opportunity to…
- The Future of Standalone GPS Devices in Cars
- This New York Times article examines whether GPS receivers for cars will get pinched between in-dash navigation systems on the one hand and smartphones with navigation apps on the other. Via @gpstracklog. Previously: TomTom Not Worried by GPS-Equipped Smartphones….
- Magellan, Mio and Navman Switch to Tele Atlas
- GPS Tracklog reports that GPS receivers from Magellan, Mio and Navman — all owned by MiTAC — are switching from Navteq to Tele Atlas as their map provider. Since TomTom owns Tele Atlas, does that mean that Garmin is the…
- Garmin to Exit Smartphone Market?
- In an interview with Reuters, Garmin CFO Kevin Rauckman said sales of Garmin’s mobile phones have been below expectations and that if the situation does not improve within a couple of quarters, Garmin will “have to sit back and evaluate…
- MapQuest Embraces OpenStreetMap
- In an interesting development, MapQuest has launched a site that combines OpenStreetMap mapping data with its user interface and routing directions. MapQuest Open is limited to the U.K. for the time being (a wise decision considering the state of OSM…
- TomTom Not Worried by GPS-Equipped Smartphones
- TomTom’s senior vice president of market development, Tom Murray, doesn’t think GPS-equipped smartphones will replace dedicated navigation devices any time soon. “There’s been no market impact on the demand for stand-alone GPS devices,” TomTom Tom says in an interview; he…
- Yahoo Turns to Nokia/NAVTEQ for Maps
- Engadget reports Nokia and Yahoo have announced a strategic partnership that includes Yahoo using Nokia’s NAVTEQ for maps and navigation. Of the major online map providers, it’s safe to say that Yahoo has been lagging the furthest behind. Engadget quotes…
- Platial Shuts Down
- Platial is shutting down; the site may go dark as early as tomorrow. Instructions on exporting data hosted by Platial have been posted, but the data will be archived at Geocommons. Di-Ann Eisnor explains: We are retiring the site because…
- For Sale: Ordnance Survey?
- The hell? Mapperz points to the following item, tucked away in this Grauniad article about the British government’s efforts to reduce its budget deficit: “A total of £16bn will be saved by pressing ahead with the sale of public assets…
- Navigon Pulls Out of North America
- Less than two years after entering the North American personal navigation device market, Navigon is calling it quits — they were undercut, says GPS Business News, by competitors selling at less-than-premium prices. Via GPS Tracklog, where Rich has some thoughts…
- Will Yahoo Outsource Its Maps?
- Buried in the San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of job cuts at Yahoo is the suggestion that Yahoo may farm out its maps to another company, which is generating a certain amount of reaction in the map blogosphere: All Points Blog,…
- ‘GIS Alley’: Fort Collins, Colorado
- Truth be told, I’d never heard of the name “GIS Alley” before today, but it refers to the large group of geospatial companies located in and around Fort Collins, Colorado. Here’s a puff piece in the Fort Collins Coloradoan by…
- Tyler Bell on Yahoo’s Open Location Program
- As a preview of his talk at next month’s Where 2.0 conference, Yahoo’s Geo Technologies lead Tyler Bell sits down for a long interview with O’Reilly Media’s James Turner, in which they discuss Yahoo’s behind-the-scenes geo technologies (e.g., geotagging on…
- Another Report Has Google Beating MapQuest
- Google Maps surpassed MapQuest over the weekend in terms of monthly visitors according to Hitwise numbers; a couple of other reports had Google beating MapQuest back in January. I guess it depends on the methodology. Via All Points Blog. Previously:…
- Microsoft and TomTom Kiss and Make Up
- CNet reports that Microsoft and TomTom have settled their patent suits against one another: “As part of the deal, as TomTom will pay Microsoft for patent protection related to mapping patents and file-management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by…
- Tyler Bell Interview
- It’s an interview packed with softball questions, but Telematics Update’s interview with Dr. Tyler Bell, who heads the Yahoo Geo Technologies product team, reveals where Yahoo sees itself relative to other mapping providers. Short version: not as an also-ran by…
- TomTom TroublesTroubles
- On GeoCarta, Roger Hart has been following the story of TomTom’s financial difficulties — lower sales, job cuts, and, most recently, the fact that TomTom lost €989 million last quarter, thanks in no small part to the €1.048-billion writedown of…
- Report: Google Surpassed MapQuest in January
- Edward has a couple of additional data points to add to the Google vs. MapQuest market share question; in addition to the four-point gap Hitwise reported, comScore apparently says that Google beat MapQuest in January; Compete.com reports something similar. Edward…
- Market Share Update
- Hitwise reports that MapQuest continues to hold a small lead over Google Maps, even though it looked like Google would soon overtake it a few months ago. Still, compared to last year, when MapQuest held a 50-to-22 lead over Google,…
- Magellan Sale Complete, Magellan Product Line to Continue
- MiTAC has completed its purchase of Magellan’s consumer products line, which will continue to exist as a brand separate from MiTAC’s existing Mio line. Previously: Magellan Sells Consumer Products Division to MiTAC….
- Magellan Sells Consumer Products Division to MiTAC
- GPS Tracklog and GPS Review are reporting that Magellan has sold its consumer products division — think the Maestro, RoadMate and Triton — to MiTAC, whose Mio subsidiary also makes consumer GPS products. Curiouser and curiouser. (Apparently Magellan has been…
- ‘A Huge Annual Trawl of Revision’
- The Independent’s “I Want Your Job” feature features a cartographer — namely, Iain MacDonald of Collins Geo. Swoon at the exciting life of a cartographer: tedious painstaking research! No, seriously: after reading this I want to be a cartographer; keep…
- Nokia Completes NAVTEQ Takeover
- Nokia’s acquisition of NAVTEQ is now complete (previously; via Engadget)….
- Link Roundup: Early July Edition
- Off camping for a few days; here are a few links to tide you over: Roger Hart’s very good blog, GeoCarta, has moved to a new address and a new platform. The Sandusky Library Archives Research Center’s map collection is…
- Working Cartographers
- From the Times’s career section, an article featuring two people working in the cartography field: Jon Ford, a survey geologist with the British Geological Survey, and Edward Mainwaring, a cartographer with the Ordnance Survey….
- TomTom DealDeal ClearedCleared
- TomTom has received the go-ahead from the European Commission for its takeover of Tele Atlas: AP, Bloomberg, Reuters. In a nutshell, the existence of a competitor, Navteq/Nokia, would remove any incentive on the part of the merged TomTom/Tele Atlas to…
- TomTom-Tele Atlas Update
- All Points Blog has a roundup of the seemingly contradictory news stories about the TomTom-Tele Atlas merger and the European Commission. Previously: EU Formally Objects to TomTom-Tele Atlas Deal; EU Investigates TomTom-Tele Atlas Deal….
- DeLorme Profiled
- Another profile of map publisher (and now GPS maker) DeLorme, this time from the Bangor Daily News’s Bill Graves. DeLorme got its start mapping Maine, so no surprise that the Maine media likes to cover the company’s history: local success…
- European Commission Probes Nokia-Navteq Merger
- The Nokia-Navteq merger is also the subject of a European Commission probe; the Commission announced Friday that it had “serious doubts” about how the merger would affect competition: Chicago Tribune (via Slashgeo), Reuters (via Engadget). You will recall that the…
- Market Share
- In January, Hitwise reported on the relative market shares of the online map sites. MapQuest continued to lead with more than 50 percent of the market, with Google Maps second at 22 percent, and Yahoo and Microsoft trailing. But,…
- EU Formally Objects to TomTom-Tele Atlas Deal
- Reuters reports that the European Commission has sent a statement of objections to TomTom over its proposed takeover of Tele Atlas. This is not an outright rejection; TomTom now has until May 5 to offer additional remedies to assuage EU…
- Market Doubts About Nokia-Navteq Merger
- There are stock market doubts about the Nokia-Navteq merger, according to a piece in Medill Reports (which is written by graduate journalism students). “According to [Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Yair] Reiner, Nokia has yet to file for antitrust clearance by…
- WSJ on Navteq and Tele Atlas
- Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran a story on the digital map “duopoly,” Navteq and Tele Atlas — it starts and finishes like so many local profiles of digital map surveying, but the meat of the article is a…
- EU Investigates TomTom-Tele Atlas Deal
- With Garmin out of the picture, you’d think that TomTom’s proposed takeover of Tele Atlas would be free of further complications, but no: European Union regulators are investigating the deal over competitive concerns; they’re expected to rule by next April….
- Garmin to Tele Atlas: Never Mind
- Garmin has withdrawn its $3.3-billion bid for Tele Atlas, leaving TomTom free to nab the company. Instead, Garmin has struck a deal with Navteq, their current map data supplier, to guarantee access to that data through 2015. Via Engadget. Update:…
- Garmin Challenges TomTom for Tele Atlas
- Three months after TomTom’s €1.8-billion bid for Tele Atlas, Garmin is making a play for the digital mapping data company, with a $3.3-billion bid of its own — a bid fueled by a concern that Garmin not be forced to…
- Nokia Acquires Navteq
- When it was announced last July that TomTom would acquire Tele Atlas for €1.8 billion, Navteq was widely seen as the next acquisition target. The only question was, by whom. The answer is Nokia, which announced today that it was…
- TomTom MergerMerger
- Yesterday’s big news was TomTom’s offer of €1.8 billion for fellow Dutch company Tele Atlas. Not really a surprise, given the growth in business of online maps and navigation devices. If the merger goes through, Tele Atlas will continue to…
