Telematics Blog
Volvo First to Adopt NAVTEQ’s Automatic Map Update Program: a Smart Move?
Thu, 2 Jul 2009 13:08:50 EDT
Dominique Bonte | Practice Director, Telematics and NavigationOn June 15th NAVTEQ announced Volvo as the first customer of its MapCare program. Model year 2010 Volvo car buyers in Europe, North America and Russia will automatically receive two updates for free, one per year, on their in-dash navigation system. Registration and shipment will be taken care of by...
Navigation Solutions Moving Into Commercial Telematics with NeverLost Fleet
Tue, 9 Jun 2009 11:19:11 EDT
Dominique Bonte | Practice Director, Telematics and NavigationPlano, Texas based Navigation Solutions demonstrated its new Neverlost Fleet solution at the recently held Telematics Detroit conference. It represents an important milestone for the vendor behind the NeverLost navigation solution offered by rental car company Hertz. NeverLost Fleet can be compared ...
TCS Acquires LocationLogic (Autodesk) for $25 Million
Wed, 20 May 2009 13:05:39 EDT
Dominique Bonte | Practice Director, Telematics and NavigationLocation based platforms and services provider TeleCommunication Systems announced the acquisition of California-based privately held LocationLogic, Autodesk’s former Location Services Business which was acquired by Hale Capital Partners earlier this year following Autodesk’s decision ...
NAVTEQ Launches On-line Mapping Portal
Thu, 14 May 2009 06:27:46 EDT
Dominique Bonte | Practice Director, Telematics and NavigationOn May 12th NAVTEQ announced the launch – in beta - of a mapping portal and geospatial platform (www.navteq.com) including routing capabilities and content such as real-time traffic (in US metropolitan areas) and drive time calculation as well as dynamic location data. This follows simi...
Location Based Advertising - Connecting the Dots
Wed, 6 May 2009 12:52:28 EDT
George Perros | Senior Analyst, Location Based ServicesIn discussions about location based services, it doesn't take long for the conversation to migrate to location based advertising (LBA). The usual issues then crop up - consumer privacy concerns, the absolute need for explicit device owner consent (opt-in), the importance of insuring the ads resonate...
Google’s Location-enabled Toolbar Brings the Geo-Web One Step Closer
Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:13:15 EDT
Dominique Bonte | Practice Director, Telematics and Navigation“Toolbar with My Location” is the first pre-beta feature released by the recently created Google Toolbar Labs. It provides location-based search on Google, Google Maps displays centered around the current position, as well as a Google Maps toolbar gadget to view the current location on a...
Family Safety and Security Continues to be a Key LBS Application Area for Networks
Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:06:33 EDT
George Perros | Senior Analyst, Location Based ServicesThe announcement this week of AT&T's FamilyMap family locator service underscores the realization on the part of network operators that having a comprehensive set of LBS offerings that address core subscriber concerns is critical to maintaining market share. The new application is iden...
Technology Acquisitions and the Shrinking GPS Semiconductor Landscape
Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:43:09 EDT
George Perros | Senior Analyst, Location Based ServicesThe announcement this week by u-blox regarding its plan to acquire Geotate, while a bit of a surprise, continues the trend that began in earnest back in 2007, with GPS semiconductor companies disappearing from the competitive landscape after receiving an offer they couldn't refuse. ...
Turn-by-Turn Navigation Coming to the iPhone
Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:04:37 EDT
Dominique Bonte | Practice Director, Telematics and NavigationThe long overdue announcement to support turn-by-turn navigation instructions came in the form of the preview of the new iPhone OS 3.0 software which will be available as a free update on all iPhones some time this summer. iPhone OS 3.0 now unlocks core location APIs for third party developers. Howe...
CeBIT 2009: a Turning Point?
Sat, 7 Mar 2009 16:35:17 EST
Dominique Bonte | Practice Director, Telematics and NavigationThe impact of the economic downturn was clearly visible at CeBIT this year. While visitor numbers once reached half a million, the 2009 version at times left a rather depressing image with some halls only filled for 50 % and many booths desperately reaching out to the sparse visitors passing by. &n...