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TomTom Developer API
Tim
1500 Points
Not much information yet, but see my speculation from one year ago and the vague announcement of a TomTom developer API today.
Comments
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=455020
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/32801/tomtom-looks-to-app-store
This Engagdet pic shows traffic web cams relayed through the coming 1000
Hopefully the US version has all the features as well.
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/04/tomtom27apr0443.jpg
On PND's, he says he sees nothing wrong with that market, with the PND continuing to do well. They don't think the market is really shrinking. (FWIW, strictly speaking the last quarter showed improvement in PND sales, so he technically has a basis for making that assertion)
HDTraffic for the United States? They are still looking at options. As Tim mentioned in a thread a few days ago, the US is a big challenging country, and TomTom says "we are looking all sorts of alternatives". They won't comment on whether an acquisition might be the best way to make it happen, and otherwise Mr. Goddjin was vague on the HDTraffic plans for North America.
That sounds like a nice niche, as the puny screen sizes on smartphones don't really cut it for navigation (and larger screen sizes don't comfortably fit in a pocket). Due to the huge monthly expense for a low-quality device, I agree with Tomtom and see smartphones as a GPS sideshow and not real competition.
If Tomtom can convert its existing owners in Europe to it's whole range of Navcore 10 connected devices (GO 1000 is the first), then it may have the critical mass needed for a successful app store. I think they've got enough of a lead in the auto space and I doubt apple/google have a chance to break in. My take is the competition in the dash will be Microsoft/Sync and Nokia/Navteq.
One analyst noted that TomTom said that this was the last time they would break out average PND sell prices or pnd sales volumes.
Hopefully they have a lot of success in the auto field beyond where they are at right now. I also see that as a huge basically untapped market. The Ford sync deal is like a puzzle with a lot of pieces whereas TomTom can present a single vendor to provide all. A big advantage and one that kills a lot of R&D and other expense for automakers.
The 'one device endless possibilities' is great for everyone that uses these things.
Personally I like my phone to make phone calls and read and send texts. Another device is fine with me for web and navigation.
"We introduced our Live Services bundle, including HD Traffic in Belgium and Portual...........................................................................................
In the US we also rolled out Live Service and are looking at the inclusion of HD Traffic there in due course."
http://www.twice.com/article/261275-TomTom_Planning_Live_Traffic_Sharing.php
“We’re definitely looking at bringing High Definition traffic to this continent,” TomTom president Jocelyn Vigreux said.
Somewhere in a GPS Business news interview Vigreux said that HD Traffic was coming here in late 2009 or early 2010. I know that changed - which was my point they gave up on it here.
Somewhere in early 2009 they said they would be offering HD Traffic here within the next year.
Actually now that I think about it they said they were negotiating with an unnamed carrier to bring HD Traffic to the US when they came out with the 740. Gators other post below says as much.
I'm still pretty sure GPS Business News had this info from an interview with Vigreux.
Maybe gator can remember where he read or heard this and comment. Its not online anymore that I'm pretty sure of.
http://forums.gpsreview.net/discussion/12918/x/p1/
Will TomTom still be offering their own HDTraffic solution within the year as they indicated a few months ago.
http://forums.gpsreview.net/discussion/comment/70077/;highlight=traffic#70077
TomTom does hope to have a carrier signed up to supply HD traffic info by the time the one-year initial subscription is due to renew.
Anyway, we should steer this thread back to the API.
I've seen a Facebook app and something for traffic web cams on Engadget plus in writing they mention Wikipedia.
There are a lot of good possibilities for time management apps with calendar and reminders etc.
They could easily morph this into a connected PDA type of thing.